29.06.2013 Views

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

a) b - École Polytechnique de Montréal

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

increasing the pH value due to a <strong>de</strong>crease in electrostatic repulsion and the prevention of<br />

molecular packing when the pH is raised(Braga, Paterno, Lima, Fonseca, & <strong>de</strong> Andra<strong>de</strong>, 2008).<br />

It can be conclu<strong>de</strong>d that the increase of loops and tails is proportional to the increase of surface<br />

roughness and adsorbed layer thickness.<br />

2.4.1.1.11 Important Views on PANI/PSS LbL Adsorption<br />

General aspects: Rubner et al.(Cheung, et al., 1997) reported that adsorption of polyaniline onto<br />

a negatively charged surface occurs very rapidly. For the most concentrated solution, it took 5<br />

min to reach complete adsorption, and in case of the least concentrated solution (around 10 -4 M)<br />

it took approximately 25 min. It was also mentioned that even for adsorption process as long as<br />

24 hrs, no additional net adsorption was observed. Adsorption of bilayers of PANI/PSS has a<br />

linear rate and is in<strong>de</strong>pen<strong>de</strong>nt of the number of layers <strong>de</strong>posited onto the substrate surface.<br />

Undoped and partially doped polyaniline can be dissolved in a wi<strong>de</strong> variety of solvents, but<br />

doped polyaniline can be dissolved only in very strong solvents such as chromic acid. The poor<br />

nature of PANI-solvent interactions favors the spontaneous adsorption of polyaniline chains onto<br />

a variety of quite different substrates, including both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. It<br />

also <strong>de</strong>monstrates a significant aggregation of the polyaniline chains after 1-2 weeks. The film<br />

<strong>de</strong>position process is very sensitive; films ma<strong>de</strong> by three different operators at the same<br />

conditions revealed three completely different thickness of PANI(Braga, et al., 2008).<br />

pH: The pH of the solution has a crucial influence on the stability of the solutions, doping and<br />

the adsorption process. A polyaniline solution is not stable for more than a couple of hours. No<br />

<strong>de</strong>posited layers have been observed by alternately dipping the substrate into a neutral<br />

polyaniline solution and a poly(styrene sulfonic) acid solution. The lower pH of a polyaniline<br />

solution has more positive charges because of the protonic acid doping, resulting in an increase<br />

of polyaniline adsorption by a factor of around 1.5. Consequently, a higher electrostatic repulsion<br />

is ma<strong>de</strong> between charges of polyelectrolytes such as PANI(Ferreira & Rubner, 1995). Polymer<br />

chains according to this electrostatic repulsion tend to straighten out and improve molecular<br />

packing. For this reason, a small number of PANI chains can approach the substrate surface and<br />

the amount of polymer adsorbed <strong>de</strong>creases. On the contrary, raising the pH results in a <strong>de</strong>crease<br />

89

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!