Influence of Polycation (PDADMAC) Weight on Vertical Diffusion within Polyelectrolyte Multilayers during Film Formation and Postpreparation Treatment

The internal interfaces of polyelectrolyte multilayers are investigated with neutron reflectivity. The films are made from poly(diallyldimethylammonium) (PDADMA), poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS), and deuterated PSS-d. Each film consists of a protonated and a deuterated block. The internal roughness is smallest next to the film/air interface and increases with the number of layer pairs away from the film/air interface until a metastable state is reached. Both the final internal roughness and the interdiffusion constant increase with the salt concentration in the deposition solution and with PDADMA polymer weight. The increased mobility found with high molecular weight PDADMA is attributed to residual stresses occurring during film formation. The experiments suggest that PSS and PDADMA move partly as a complex. Postpreparation immersion in 1 M NaCl salt solutions has little effect if the multilayer is prepared from low salt solution and with high molecular weight PDADMA. However, almost complete intermixing is observed for multilayers prepared from 0.1 M NaCl and with low molecular weight PDADMA (diffusion length exceeds 30 nm).