A Survey of the Properties of Polyion Multilayer Thin Films Prepared by the Spontaneous Adsorption Technique

The Spontaneous Adsorption technique is a low cost approach for assembling interesting thin films. Virtually any polyion can be incorporated into a film, including dyes, polymers, proteins, viruses, inorganic nanoparticles and ceramic plates. The technique is simple to automate. The SA technique requires minimum equipment investment and interesting films can be made by hand with beakers, electrolytes, water and a stopwatch. By using a moderately-priced automated slide stainer, complex multilayers can be prepared. Compared to the LB technique, scaleup of automated SA film assembly is less costly. This report contains numerous examples of PMFs whose properties can be tuned by varying the number of layers or the spacing between functional layers. Virtually any substrate upon which a charge can be placed can be used in the SA process. The SA process exhibits self-healing characteristics. Point defects and dust inclusions have limited propagation distance. Varying bilayer thickness can be obtained by changing the ionic strength. The SA technique can be combined with other methods (Langmiur-Blodgett technique, spin coating, etc.) to provide a variety of films.Air Force Research Lab Wright-Patterson AFB OH Materials and Manufacturing Directorate is the author of 'A Survey of the Properties of Polyion Multilayer Thin Films Prepared by the Spontaneous Adsorption Technique' with ISBN 9781423534020 and ISBN 1423534026.