Multilayers by adsorption of functional polyelectrolytes

The synthesis of polycations bearing reactive groups, namely tertiary anilines located in the side chain or in the main chain, is described. These polyions are employed in conventional alternating polyelectrolyte multilayer assembly or in a modified build-up process including an azo coupling reaction on the topmost layer after every polycation adsorption step, which offers the potential to create multilayer structures with a non-centrosymmetric structure. The characterization of these modified assemblies by UV/VIS spectroscopy reveals significant differences in the spectral data in dependence of the polycation structure.