Polymer multilayer film formation studied by in situ ellipsometry and electrochemistry

Polyelectrolyte multilayer films adsorbed on gold surfaces were studied by combined ellipsometric and electrochemical methods. Multilayers were composed of “synthetic” (poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid) ammonium salt (PSS) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) (PSS/PAH)) and “semi-natural” (carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and chitosan (CHI) (CMC/CHI)) polyelectrolytes. It was found that only PSS/PAH Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembled structures result in dense surface confined films that limit permeability of small molecules, such as ferri-/ferrocyanide. The PSS/PAH assemblies can be envisaged as films with pinholes, through which small molecules diffuse. During the LbL deposition process of these films a number of pinholes quickly decay. A representative pinhole diameter was found to be approximately 20 μm, which determines the diffusion of small molecules through LbL films, and yet remains constant when the film consists of a few LbL assembled polyelectrolyte bilayers. CMC/CHI LbL assemblies at gold electrode surfaces give very low density films, which do not limit the diffusion of ferri-/ferrocyanide between the surface of the electrode and the solution.