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Fabrication of Macroporous Films with Closed Honeycomb‐Like Pores from Exponentially Growing Layer‐by‐Layer Assembled Polyelectrolyte Multilayers
Author(s) -
Chen Xiaoling,
Sun Junqi
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemistry – an asian journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.18
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1861-471X
pISSN - 1861-4728
DOI - 10.1002/asia.201402054
Subject(s) - fabrication , polyelectrolyte , materials science , acrylic acid , layer by layer , allylamine , layer (electronics) , chemical engineering , honeycomb , micrometer , phase (matter) , thin film , polymer chemistry , nanotechnology , composite material , copolymer , chemistry , organic chemistry , polymer , optics , medicine , pathology , engineering , alternative medicine , physics
We report an innovative method for the fabrication of macroporous films with closed honeycomb‐like pores of several micrometers by post‐treatment of micrometer‐thick poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) films. The precursor PAA/PAH films are fabricated by exponential layer‐by‐layer assembly of PAA and PAH, which produces PAA/PAH films with highly interpenetrated structures. We disclose that the high mobility of PAA and PAH, which originates from the highly interpenetrated film structures, allows a large‐scale phase separation to take place upon post‐treatment to produce micrometer‐sized honeycomb pores. These macroporous PAA/PAH films can be conveniently released from substrates to produce free‐standing films with satisfactory mechanical stability.