Electrophoretic co-deposition of biomimetic nanoplatelet–polyelectrolyte composites

Bio-inspired assembly of platelet particles and polyelectrolytes into ordered layered composites is of great technological importance in developing light-weight reinforced materials, separation membranes, and gas-barrier coatings. Unfortunately, the broadly applied layer-by-layer self-assembly technology is tedious in generating thick multilayered coatings. Here, we report a rapid and scalable cathodic electrophoretic co-deposition technology that enables simultaneous assembly of positively charged gibbsite nanoplatelets and cationic polyelectrolytes into ordered multilayers in a single step. The resulting nanocomposites have similar organic/inorganic weight ratio and ordered brick-and-mortar nanostructure as natural nacres. Nanoindentation tests show that the electrodeposited nanocomposites exhibit similar hardness and reduced modulus as those of pure gibbsite coatings.