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Layer‐by‐Layer Assembly Through Weak Interactions and Their Biomedical Applications
Author(s) -
Matsusaki Michiya,
Ajiro Hiroharu,
Kida Toshiyuki,
Serizawa Takeshi,
Akashi Mitsuru
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201103698
Subject(s) - nanotechnology , materials science , polymer , van der waals force , layer by layer , macromolecule , layer (electronics) , fabrication , micrometer , polymerization , nanometre , self assembly , nano , chemical physics , molecule , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , composite material , medicine , biochemistry , alternative medicine , pathology , optics
The surface design and control of substrates with nanometer‐ or micrometer‐sized polymer films are of considerable interest for both fundamental and applied studies in the biomedical field because of the required surface properties. The layer‐by‐layer (LbL) technique was discovered in 1991 by Decher and co‐workers for the fabrication of polymer multilayers constructed mainly through electrostatic interaction. The scope and applicability of this LbL assembly has been extended by introducing molecularly regular conformations of polymers or proteins by employing, for the first time, weak interactions such as van der Waals interactions and biological recognition. Since these weak interactions are the sum of the attractive or repulsive forces between parts of the same molecule, they allow macromolecules to be easily arranged into the most stable conformation in a LbL film. By applying this characteristic feature, the template polymerization of stereoregular polymers, stereoregular control of surface biological properties, drastic morphological control of biodegradable nano materials, and the development of three‐dimensional cellular multilayers as a tissue model were successfully achieved. It is expected that LbL assembly using weak interactions will promote further interest into fundamental and applied studies on the design of surface chemistry in the biomedical field.