Self-assembling of polyelectrolyte multilayers

EDUARDO GUZMÁN; RAQUEL CHULIA; JESICA CAVALLO; FRANCISCO ORTEGA; RAMÓN RUBIO; MIRIAM C. STRUMIA; CESAR G. GOMEZ

Congreso; European Polymer Congress; 2011

In this work we have carried out a multi-technique experimental study of the adsorption kinetics of multilayers formed by Chitosan and Poly(acrylic acid) -PAA- as a function of the number of layers at different pH’s, and of the same system including Propanolol. In our studies, we have observed a very important effect of pH on the thickness and the water content of the films. The strongly non-linear dependence of the film thickness on the number of layers is due to the polymer diffusion within the film, which leads to high roughness and to a homogeneous chemical structure within the multilayer. The pH modifies the charge densities of the polymers, thus modifying their interactions and their mutual diffusion.