ADSORPTION OF POLYELECTROLYTE MULTILAYERS ON POLYMER SURFACES

Different from the conventional use of charged supports, the assembly of thin coatings by alternate adsorption of oppositely charged polyele ctrolytes was realized on a variety of uncharged standard polymers, su ch as poly(propylene), poly(styrene), poly(methyl methacrylate), and p oly(ethylene terephthalate). For the multilayer buildup, the polyelect rolyte pair poly(styrenesulfonate)/poly(choline methacrylate) was used . The quality of the coatings was investigated by UV/vis spectroscopy, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The multilayer deposition on poly(pr opylene) (PP) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was investigated in detail. On polar poly(ethylene terephthalate) supports, the regular growth of multilayer assemblies is evidenced. In contrast, on less po lar supports, in particular on PP, the quality of the poly(styrenesulf onate)/poly(choline methacrylate) multilayers is inferior. However, if a hydrophobically modified poly(choline methacrylate) is employed ins tead, good quality multilayers are obtained even on PP. Thus, by appro priate choice of the polyelectrolytes used, even very hydrophobic and polar substrates become useful for the alternate adsorption technique.