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Title: Chain Conformation and Dynamics in Spin-Assisted Weak Polyelectrolyte Multilayers

Journal Article · · Langmuir
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Stevens Inst. of Technology, Hoboken, NJ (United States). Dept. of Chemistry, Chemical Biology and Biomedical Engineering
  2. Columbia High School, Maplewood, NJ (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Spallation Neutron Source

In this paper, we report on the effect of the deposition technique on film layering, stability, and chain mobility in weak polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer (LbL) films. Ellipsometry and neutron reflectometry (NR) showed that shear forces arising during spin-assisted assembly lead to smaller amounts of adsorbed polyelectrolytes within LbL films, result in a higher degree of internal film order, and dramatically improve stability of assemblies in salt solutions as compared to dip-assisted LbL assemblies. The underlying flattening of polyelectrolyte chains in spin-assisted LbL films was also revealed as an increase in ionization degree of the assembled weak polyelectrolytes. As demonstrated by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), strong binding between spin-deposited polyelectrolytes results in a significant slowdown of chain diffusion in salt solutions as compared to dip-deposited films. Moreover, salt-induced chain intermixing in the direction perpendicular to the substrate is largely inhibited in spin-deposited films, resulting in only subdiffusional (<2 Å) chain displacements even after 200 h exposure to 1 M NaCl solutions. Finally, this persistence of polyelectrolyte layering has important ramifications for multistage drug delivery and optical applications of LbL assemblies.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; DMR-0906474
OSTI ID:
1324130
Journal Information:
Langmuir, Vol. 31, Issue 13; ISSN 0743-7463
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 21 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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