ToF-SIMS analysis of adsorbate/membrane interactions I. Adsorption of dehydroabietic acid on poly(vinylidene fluoride)

Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was used to investigate the adsorption behaviour of aqueous solutions of dehydroabietic acid (dhAA) in contact with poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVdF). An identification scheme was developed to qualitatively identify the presence of adsorbed resin acid on the membrane surface at solution concentrations from 10–1000 ppm. ToF-SIMS reveals that dehydroabietic acid adsorbs inhomogeneously on the surface of poly(vinylidene fluoride).