POLYELECTROLYTE MULTILAYER TEMPLATE ASSISTED IN-SITU SYNTHESIS OF THE INORGANIC NANOSTRUCTURES

Mul-ti-layers for-med from we-ak polyions of polyallyla-mi-ne (PAH) and polyacrylic acid (PAA), posses-sing ion-ex-chan-ge-a-ble car-boxylic gro-ups we-re used to bind the me-tal ca-ti-ons wit-hin the film. By sub-se-qu-ent wet che-mi-cal re-ac-tion pro-cess of the in-cor-po-ra-ted me-tal ions, pu-re zinc sul-fi-de (ZnS) with a nar-row si-ze di-stri-bu-tion was for-med wit-hin the PEMs. The si-ze and con-cen-tra-tion of the inor-ga-nic nanopar-tic-les in polyion ma-trix we-re con-trol-led by the con-cen-tra-tion of me-tal – bin-ding car-boxylic acid gro-ups as de-ter-mi-ned by the mul-ti-layer as-sembly pH. Furt-her-mo-re, the me-tal ca-tion loading and re-ac-tion met-ho-do-logy co-uld be repeatedly cycled to in-cre-a-se the si-ze and volu-me den-sity of the na-no-par-tic-les. Furt-her-mo-re, the polyelec-trolyte mul-ti-layer films we-re used as tem-pla-tes for the ce-ra-mic (TiO2) thin film fa-bri-ca-tion with a mo-di-fied solgel reac-tion. Since the multi-layer as-sembly is per-for-med from the polyion aqu-e-o-us so-lu-ti-ons, the mul-ti-layers con-tain so-me wa-ter that, af-ter in-fil-tra-tion of the or-ga-no-me-tal-lic pre-cur-sor, ena-bles in-si-tu re-ac-tion of hydrolysis and con-den-sa-tion re-ac-tion. Af-ter calcination, nanocrystal-li-ne TiO2 thin films with thic-kness, con-trol-la-ble by the num-ber of the polyion layers in the ma-trix, we-re for-med. With the in-si-tu synthesis ap-pro-ach of inor-ga-nic nanstruc-tu-res in polyelec-trolyte mul-ti-layer ma-trix, the ability of ob-ta-i-ning the con-trol over the film thic-kness and si-ze of the inor-ga-nic par-tic-les has enabled the tu-ning of the op-ti-cal pro-per-ti-es of as fabricated inor-ga-nic-or-ga-nic com-po-si-te films, as well as nanocrystal-li-ne ce-ra-mic films.