화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.112, No.20, 6322-6330, 2008
Granular structure of self-assembled PAA/PAH and PSS/PAH nascent films imaged in situ by LC-AFM
Liquid cell atomic force microscopy (LC-AFM) is used to image self-assembled polyelectrolyte films eliminating any drying effects on the film structure. Weak/weak and strong/weak polyelectrolyte films are formed by the alternated deposition of poly(acrylic acid) [PAA]/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) [PAH], and poly(sodium 4-styrene sulfonate) [PSS]/PAH, respectively, forming a granular surface structure. Number and area of grains (G(N), G(A)) are used to characterize the surface of these films during their build up process. We show that hydrophilic PAA increases G(A) and decreases G(N), while these parameters follow an opposite behavior with PSS. In both cases, G(A) and G(N) always have a simple inverse relationship, and then grain surface coverage (G(S) = G(N)G(A)) is nearly constant and independent of polyelectrolyte nature and the substrates used here, but also in the published data as well. The drying of the weak/weak film was also imaged after natural and forced solvent evaporation, and the surface structure is strongly affected, although the G(S) values keep roughly the same value found for wet films. The set of these results indicates that G(S) may be considered as a constant parameter during the build-up for the self-nascent assembled polyelectrolytes. The granular structure is still maintained after glucose oxidase adsorption on these films with comparable G(S) values.