Multilayer thin films layering procedure

Finally, we will consider briefly the formation of multilayer thin films by layer-by-layer deposition of hydrogen-bonded polymer pairs [51,52]. In this way a multilayer structure is obtained from potentially miscible polymer pairs. The stability of these films very much depends on the presence of hydrogen bonds, and pH may be used as an external trigger to erase the layered structure [53,54] and selectively dissolve one of the components [25-27]. This procedure allows for the preparation of microporous films not unlike the nanoporous films obtained by dissolution of the hydrogen-bonded side groups from self-assembled block copolymer-based comb-shaped supramo-lecules [15,17,18]. 

Figure 5. Procedure for layer-by-layer growth of divalent metal phosphonate films on gold surfaces. The sample is washed with ethanol between adsorption steps. Repetition of steps (2) and (3) gives multilayer thin films.

Electrostatic layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly techniques based on oppositely charged poipelectrolytes can be useful to create stable noncentrosymmetric order in thin films. Using this interesting technique, thermodynamically stable noncentrosymmetric multilayer films can be prepared without any need for poling. Tripathy et al. reported the fabrication stable multilayer films of epoxy-based side chain azo polymers for second-order nonlinear optics.The second-order NLO coefficients of the five-bilayer LBL films of these polymers were found to be comparable to those of spin-coated poled films. A schematic view of the procedure to fabricate polyelectrolyte-based LBL films is shown in Fig. 7. 

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