Electrostatic Assembly of Polymer/Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Multilayer Films

Polymer/carbon nanotube films have been formed by the alternate adsorption of the polyelectrolyte poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) and single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) onto substrates. Atomic force and scanning electron microscopies indicated that the adsorbed SWNTs were mostly in the form of 5−10 nm bundles and that uniform substrate coverage occurred. Absorbance spectrophotometry (UV−vis−NIR) confirmed that the adsorption technique resulted in uniform film growth. Characterization of the adsorbed SWNTs by X-ray photoelectron, Raman, and UV−vis−NIR spectroscopies suggested that they have a core of well ordered nanotubes covered by a layer of oxidized carbon nanotubes.