Berlin 2015 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 37: Interfaces and Thin Films III (joint session CPP, DS)
CPP 37.10: Talk
Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 12:00–12:15, C 243
The Swelling Behaviour of Voids inside Polyelectrolyte Multilayers — •Maximilian Zerball1, Ralf Köhler2, Olaf Soltwedel3, and Regine von Klitzing1 — 1Institut für Chemie, Technische Universität Berlin, Str. 17.Juni 124, 10623 Berlin — 2Institut für Weiche Materie und funktionelle Materialien, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin — 3Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung, Lichtenbergstr. 1, 85747 Garching
Polyelectrolyte Multilayer (PEM) are organic films built up via subsequent adsorption of oppositely charged polyions. PEMs are highly sensitive to external parameter like the relative humidity (r.h.) of the ambient atmosphere. This ability makes them to ideal candidates for sensoric applications. In order to use these films as sensors it is important to understand and to control the swelling behavior. The uptaken water of swollen PEMs are subdividable into two contributions; the swelling water, which influences thickness and optical properties, and the void water, which only affects the optical properties of the PEM.
The swelling behavior of voids, i.e. the separated amount of uptaken water inside voids in comparison to the uptaken amount of water inside the PEM with increasing r.h., is rarely researched. For the purpose to understand the swelling behavior of voids more in detail, in this study the void water and swelling water of PEMs in dependence of the relative humidty was investigated by neutron reflectivity. The results suggest that the strongest increase of voidwater proceeds between 0% r,h, and 6% r.h. while beyond, the swelling water dominates the amount of water.