Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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CPP: Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 27: POSTER Polymer Physics and Materials

CPP 27.23: Poster

Thursday, March 30, 2006, 17:00–19:00, P2

Freestanding polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes as pressure sensors and separation membranes — •Ingo Dönch, Marc Nolte, Björn Schöler, and Andreas Fery — Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung, 14424 Potsdam

Polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes can be prepared with thicknesses on the nanoscale and they are semipermeable. This makes them interesting candidates for miniaturized osmotic pressure sensors or separation membranes. We demonstrate first steps towards such devices and applications.

A method has been developed that allows the transfer of membranes onto topographically structured PDMS substrates, so that parts of the membrane are freestanding. In the case of cylindrical cavities, the deformation of the resulting circular freestanding membrane patches can be readily described by continuum mechanical approaches. Experimentally, we probe the deformation using AFM (for small deformations) and osmotic pressure differences (for large deformations). In the latter case, we can quantitatively describe our findings which show an extraordinarily high sensitivity of these membranes towards pressure differences. Similarly, we show that large molecular weight molecules can be entrapped in the cavities and discuss possible uses of such systems in combinatorial chemistry.