Electronic conductance of ion implanted and plasma modified polymers

The authors used the plasma immersion ion implantation and deposition technique to modify polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and by using conductive atomic force microscope, the spatial distribution of ∼10 nm size titanium nanoclusters embedded in PET matrices were observed. The I-V plots showed typical metal-semiconductor junction conductivity between the conductive tip and the surface. In addition, the authors also measured the temperature dependent conductivity and fitted it well to the Mott law, which implied that the conductance arose from electron hopping process. Such technique to create the surface structure of metal/polymer nanocomposites may open an alternative way for plastic nanoelectronics.