Adsorption of polystyrene-poly(4-vinylpyridine) diblock copolymer on the assembled latex film

The Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technique was effectively used to embed anionic polystyrene (PS) latex particles into the assembled film deposited on a glass substrate. The high surface coverage of particles on poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI)-coated glass, determined from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (80%), was attained within 1 h when using the latex containing sodium chloride (5 × 10⁻⁵ mol/l) at pH 6. After immersing the particles coated substrate in the polystyrene-poly(4-vinylpyridine) diblock copolymer (PS-PVPy) dissolved in tetrahydrofuran, the contact angle value indicated that the PS-PVPy could be adsorbed on the film to provide PS block at the outermost layer. The selective solvent, block length of PVPy, latex concentration, immersion time and ionic strength of aqueous solution of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) previously adsorbed on the substrate showed influence on the adsorption of the block copolymer and, hence, the contact angle of the film.