Suppressing the Hofmeister Anion Effect by Thermal Annealing of Thin-Film Multilayers Made of Weak Polyelectrolytes.

ABSTRACT: Thin films made of weak polyelectrolytes poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) have been fabricated on silicon wafers using the layer-by-layer (LbL) method. To study the influence of counteranion type on the growth and properties of PAH/PAA multilayers, the nature of the supporting sodium salt was varied from cosmotropic to chaotropic anions (F^-, Cl^-, and ClO₄ ^-). Results of ellipsometry and AFM measurements indicate that the film thickness and surface roughness systematically increase on the order F^- < Cl^- < ClO₄ ^-. Furthermore, we found that the hydrophobicity of the PAH/PAA multilayer also follows the described trend when a polycation is the terminating layer. However, the

SUBMITTER: Klacic T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9661731 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature