The Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technique has been given a great attention due to the ease with which thin films based on the complexation of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes can be fabricated. Due to the charged nature of polyelectrolyes which may or may not have condensed counterions, the interaction of these functional groups with small ions, especially metal ions, are extremely complex. Multivalent metal ions can act as crosslinkers to enable the construction of ligand polymer with them for sensing capabilities or developing ion-ligand polymer for tunable release of biological molecules by chelationction. Ionic crosslinks formed through polycations, polyanions and multivalent ions can be reformed or reconstructed with time. Here, we choose metal ions as the small ionic crosslinker and weak polyelectrolytes, branched polyethyleneimine (BPEI) and polyacrylic acid (PAA), to build the polyelectrolyte-ion complex film. The release of these metal ions can be controlled by factors such as pH, salt and other ligands.

Tunable release of metal ions from polyelectrolyte-ion complex film

245th National Meeting (2013)

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