Controlling the physicochemical properties of weak polyelectrolyte multilayer films through acid/base equilibria
S. E. Burke and C. J. Barrett
Department of Chemistry, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke
Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6, Canada
Abstract: Multilayer thin films prepared from weak polyelectrolytes
can exhibit a rich suite of anomalous physicochemical properties. One
of the major factors that influence the properties of such films is
the acid/base chemistry of the weak functional groups of the poly- electrolytes.
In fact, the apparent dissociation constants of weak polyelectrolytes
can shift by as much as 1�4 pH units upon incorporation into multilayer
films from that in dilute solution. Here, we discuss this variability
in the dissociation behavior of polyelectrolytes in multilayer films,
and how it relates to understanding the diversity in the physicochemical
properties observed for films assembled from the same polyelectrolytes,
but under different pH conditions. In turn, we review some of the recent
research that attempts to take advantage of the pH-tunable properties
of multilayer films for a variety of applications.
*Lecture presented at the symposium "Controlling the self assembly in macromolecular systems: From nature to chemistry to functional properties", as part of the 39th IUPAC Congress and 86th Conference of the Canadian Society for Chemistry: Chemistry at the Interfaces, Ottawa, Canada, 10-15 August 2003. Other Congress presentations are published in this issue, pp. 1295-1603.
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