Abstract
Polyelectrolyte multilayers gain their importance from their applicability to a wide variety of functional building blocks. The ability to create these multilayers as laterally nano-patterned films, which has only been scarcely investigated so far, augments the functionality of the multilayer and makes it valuable for applications that require nanoscale features or periodic arrangement, such as photonic devices, catalytic surfaces, and biomedical applications. In this study we reveal how the lateral confinement imposed by block copolymer nano-domains in thin film templates affects the assembly of the deposited polyelectrolyte layers at different ionic strengths, and how the combined effects of nano-confinement and ionic strength dictate the final structure of the multilayer. These fundamental insights provide the basis for successful construction of nano-patterned, functional coatings.
Original language | American English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 56-64 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Polymer |
Volume | 126 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 22 Sep 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors thank Prof. Daniel Harries for insightful discussions. This study was supported by a joint grant between the Hebrew University Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Academia Sinica.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Block copolymers
- Layer-by-Layer deposition
- Nano-confinement
- Patterning
- Polyelectrolytes