Abstract
Electroactive organic dyes incorporated in layer-by-layer (LbL) assemblies are of great interest for a variety of applications. In this paper, Alizarin Red S (ARS), an electroactive anthraquinone dye, is employed to construct LbL (BPEI/ARS)n films with branched poly(ethylene imine) (BPEI) as the complementary polymer. Unconventional LbL methods, including co-adsorption of ARS and poly(4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS) with BPEI to assemble (BPEI/(ARS+PSS))n, as well as pre-complexation of ARS with BPEI and further assembly with PSS to fabricate ((BPEI+ARS)/PSS)n, are designed for investigation and comparison. Film growth patterns, UV–Vis spectra and surface morphology of the three types of LbL assemblies are measured and compared to reveal the formation mechanism of the LbL films. Electrochemical properties including cyclic voltammetry and spectroelectrochemistry of (BPEI/ARS)120, (BPEI/(ARS+PSS))120 and ((BPEI+ARS)/PSS)120 films are studied, and the results show a slight color change due to the redox reaction of ARS. ((BPEI+ARS)/PSS)120 shows the best stability among the three samples. It is concluded that the manner of dye- incorporation has a great effect on the electrochemical properties of the resultant films.
Highlights
Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly is a simple and powerful method to fabricate multilayer films for a variety of applications [1,2,3,4,5]
Electroactive dyes, including phthalocyanine dyes [32,33,34,35,36], porphyrin dyes [37,38,39], methylene blue [40] and naphthol green B [41], have been layer-by-layer assembled with other species, and the obtained multilayer films were studied for potential use as electrochemical devices
Electroactive Alizarin Red S has been successfully incorporated into ultrathin films to construct (BPEI/ARS)n, (BPEI/(ARS+poly(4-styrene sulfonate) (PSS)))n and ((BPEI+ARS)/PSS)n on Indium-tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass using conventional and unconventional LBL methods
Summary
Layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly is a simple and powerful method to fabricate multilayer films for a variety of applications [1,2,3,4,5]. Electroactive dyes are responsive to electrical stimulation with a reversible variation of one or more physico-chemical properties [30] They show wide technological applications in electrochemical and biological sensing, electrocatalysis, photovoltaic and electrochromic areas [31]. Due to the presence of electron donor is one such type of electroactive anthraquinone dye. It is of particular interest for its electrochromic and electron acceptor (quinone) moieties, ARS is electrochemically amphoteric, which is especially and electron acceptor (quinone) moieties, ARSelectronics is electrochemically is (phenolic) especially properties, along with its strong contrast. Its incorporation in multilayer films may show different properties for various can be expected to assemble with polycations to form new types of electrochemically functional applications, such as electrochemical sensors and electrochromic films.
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