Self-assembled single walled carbon nanotubes on multi-layered polyelectrolyte layer

The assembly behavior of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on the functionalized plasma enhanced tetraethylorthosilicate (PETEOS) substrate was investigated. A poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA)/poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)/PDDA layered structure was formed to functionalize the substrate utilizing polyelectrolyte, layer-by-layer (LBL) assembly technique, and it was identified by attenuated total reflection (ATR) infrared spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The surface morphology of polyelectrolyte layer was manipulated by the polyelectrolyte concentration. It was found that the PDDA/PAA/PDDA multilayer with higher charge stability leads to the improvement of assembly behavior of SWCNTs, compared to PDDA single layer. These results guaranteed high reproducibility of the assembly behavior of CNTs. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.