PH-induced release of polyanions from multilayer films

Eugenia Kharlampieva, John F. Ankner, Michael Rubinstein, Svetlana A. Sukhishvili

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

48 Scopus citations

Abstract

We discovered pH-induced selective desorption and readsorption of weakly acidic polymers from polyacid or polybase layer-by-layer films. In situ attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirms the selectivity of polyacid release and shows that film response is caused by pH-induced charge imbalance. Experimentally the characteristic time of chain release τ scales with molar mass M as M1.1±0.1. A new theoretical model of "sticky gel electrophoresis" of entangled polyacids agrees with experiments and predicts τ∼MH, where H is film thickness. Neutron reflectivity shows that polyacid release results in disordering of the film structure.

Original languageEnglish
Article number128303
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume100
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 27 2008
Externally publishedYes

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