ABSTRACT
Ten years ago, Decher and coworkers [1,2] proposed a simple and original method to realize supramolecular architectures on almost any charged solid substrate. These auto-assembled structures are obtained by dipping the substrate alternately in a polycation and a polyanion solution, the different layer depositions being separated by rinsing steps. The motor of the buildup of the multilayer films is the charge excess that appears after each new polyelectrolyte deposition [3-5]. This then allows a subsequent adsorption of a polyelectrolyte of opposite charge. Using this property, one can build multilayer films constituted of up to several hundreds of bilayers. After the determination of the buildup mechanism, the structures of such films were investigated by means of x-ray and neutron reflectivity experiments. For the experimental conditions used, Kiesig fringes [2,6-8] and neutron reflectivity fringes [9, 10] were observed. From these results it was concluded that the investigated films had an organized structure, each individual polyelectrolyte layer penetrating into neighboring ones [11].
