Layer-by-Layer Assembly of Ultrathin Composite Films from Micron-Sized Graphite Oxide Sheets and Polycations

TLDR: In this article, unilamellar colloids of graphite oxide (GO) were prepared from natural graphite and were grown as monolayer and multilayer thin films on cationic surfaces by electrostatic self-assembly.

Abstract: Unilamellar colloids of graphite oxide (GO) were prepared from natural graphite and were grown as monolayer and multilayer thin films on cationic surfaces by electrostatic self-assembly. The multilayer films were grown by alternate adsorption of anionic GO sheets and cationic poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). The monolayer films consisted of 11−14 A thick GO sheets, with lateral dimensions between 150 nm and 9 μm. Silicon substrates primed with amine monolayers gave partial GO monolayers, but surfaces primed with Al13O4(OH)24(H2O)127+ ions gave densely tiled films that covered approximately 90% of the surface. When alkaline GO colloids were used, the monolayer assembly process selected the largest sheets (from 900 nm to 9 μm) from the suspension. In this case, many of the flexible sheets appeared folded in AFM images. Multilayer (GO/PAH)n films were invariably thicker than expected from the individual thicknesses of the sheets and the polymer monolayers, and this behavior is also attributed to folding...