Blue Light Emission from Pulsed Laser Ablated Polystyrene

Thus far, pulsed laser ablation has been widely applied to the surface modification of polymers, but no work has been done for fluorescence performance of polystyrene ablated by pulsed laser. In this paper, a 1064 nm pulsed laser was used to ablate polystyrene. Compared to non-ablated polystyrene, the ablated polystyrene gave off obvious blue light under UV lamp irradiation. The morphology and structure of ablated and non-ablated polystyrene were studied by Fluorescence spectroscopy and IR. The results showed that the maximal emission wavelength of ablated polystyrene was 403 nm, which showed that blue light emission occurred. Because of ablation the surface chemical structure of polystyrene was changed and new C=C existed in the surface of ablated polystyrene. And the photoluminescent material was dissolvable, not cross-linked.