SUPRAMOLECULAR ENGINEERING OF ULTRATHIN ORGANIC FILMS: THE LAYER BY LAYER APPROACH TO FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS

Professor Rigoberto Advincula, Department of Chemistry, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama

abstract

The use of macromolecular and supramolecular assembly techniques is emphasized in the unique aspect of inducing order at the nm scale. A variety of surface sensitive spectroscopic and microscopic techniques are vital in the investigation of these films, foremost of which is the application of surface plasmon spectroscopy, a type of evanescent wave and ATR spectroscopy. The ordering, fabrication and optical properties of three types of investigated systems are outlined: (a) Fabrication of NLO Langmuir Blodgett Films with non-centrosymmetric structures (b) Modifications on PLED device performance with the use of self-assembled polyaniline derivatives (c) Photoinduced Alignment in Polyelectrolyte-Dye Assembled Ultrathin Films. It will be noted that in these systems ordering and functionality is only achieved by a combination of techniques applied mostly to ultrathin organic and polymer films.