Composite thin film by hydrogen-bonding assembly of polymer brush and poly(vinylpyrrolidone)

Based on hydrogen-bonding layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly in aqueous solution, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVPON) and a spherical polymer brush with a poly(methylsilsesquioxane) (PSQ) core and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) hair chains were used to fabricate composite multilayer thin films. Hydrogen bonding as the driving force was confirmed by FT-IR spectrometry. A simple method (Filmetric F20) was introduced to determine the thickness and refractive index of the films. The film thickness was found to be a linear function of the number of bilayers. The average increase in thickness per bilayer is 28.3 nm. The film morphology was characterized with scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The images obtained from the two instruments show a great resemblance. The films were further calcined to get an inorganic film by removing the organic components, or treated with tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) to remove the PSQ core and get an organic film. The optical properties and morphological changes induced by these treatments were also studied.