la060519u_si_001.pdf (1.47 MB)
Structure of Self-Assembled Multilayers Prepared from Water-Soluble Polythiophenes
journal contribution
posted on 2006-07-04, 00:00 authored by Antti Viinikanoja, Sami Areva, Natalia Kocharova, Timo Ääritalo, Maarit Vuorinen, Arto Savunen, Jouko Kankare, Jukka LukkariWe have studied the structure and morphology of self-assembled polyelectrolyte multilayers prepared using poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) and four different cationic poly(alkoxythiophene) derivatives bearing methylimidazolium-terminated ionic side chain at the 3-position of the thiophene ring: poly(1-methyl-3-[3-[3-thienyloxy]-propyl]-1H-imidazolium) (P3TOPIM), poly(1-methyl-3-[6-[3-thienyloxy]-hexyl]-1H-imidazolium) (P3TOHIM), poly(1-methyl-3-[2-[(4-methyl-3-thienyl)oxy]-ethyl]-1H-imidazolium ) (P4Me-3TOEIM), and poly(1-methyl-3-[6-[(4-methyl-3-thienyl)oxy]-hexyl]-1H-imidazolium ) (P4Me-3TOHIM). All the multilayers exhibited regular growth. The thickness
of the multilayers was measured with ellipsometry, their layer-by-layer growth was followed by polarization modulation
infrared reflection−absorption spectroscopy (PM-IRRAS) and ellipsometry, and the morphology of the films was
studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The length of the methylimidazolium-terminated side chain (Cn, n = 2,
3, 6) and the substituent (H or Me) at the 4-position of the thiophene ring were varied. All multilayers were inhomogeneous
in the sub-micrometer scale and contained aggregates of two kinds. The large ones with a low and constant surface
number density were attributed to PSS, whereas the small aggregates were polythiophene-based. The surface density
of these organic semiconducting nanoparticles greatly depended on the structure of polythiophene, being favored by
polymer regioregularity and the length of the side chain. The side chains remained disordered in all the multilayers,
but with polythiophenes having hexyl chains both the imidazolium and thiophene rings tended to orient themselves
more perpendicular to the surface than in films containing shorter chains (C2 or C3). The relative water content of
the multilayers (at 7.1% relative humidity) did not depend on the film thickness and was the lowest for P4Me-3TOHIM.
As the number of bilayers increased the methylimidazolium−sulfonate ion pairs gradually weakened and became more
individually hydrated.