Electrophoretic co-deposition of biomimetic nanoplatelet–polyelectrolyte composites

Bio-inspired assembly of platelet particles and polyelectrolytes into ordered layered composites is of great technological importance in developing light-weight reinforced materials, separation membranes, and gas-barrier coatings. Unfortunately, the broadly applied layer-by-layer self-assembly technology is tedious in generating thick multilayered coatings. Here, we report a rapid and scalable cathodic electrophoretic co-deposition technology that enables simultaneous assembly of positively charged gibbsite nanoplatelets and cationic polyelectrolytes into ordered multilayers in a single step. The resulting nanocomposites have similar organic/inorganic weight ratio and ordered brick-and-mortar nanostructure as natural nacres. Nanoindentation tests show that the electrodeposited nanocomposites exhibit similar hardness and reduced modulus as those of pure gibbsite coatings.

[1]  Wei-Han Huang,et al.  Bioinspired Assembly of Colloidal Nanoplatelets by Electric Field , 2009 .

[2]  T. Page,et al.  The deformation behavior of ceramic crystals subjected to very low load (nano)indentations , 1992 .

[3]  A. Neubrand,et al.  Effects of Particle Size and Molecular Weight of Polyethylenimine on Properties of Nanoparticulate Silicon Dispersions , 2001 .

[4]  R. Spolenak,et al.  Fast assembly of bio-inspired nanocomposite films , 2008 .

[5]  Eduardo Saiz,et al.  Freezing as a Path to Build Complex Composites , 2006, Science.

[6]  Yong Huang,et al.  An efficient biomimetic process for fabrication of artificial nacre with ordered-nanostructure , 2008 .

[7]  G. Pharr.  Measurement of mechanical properties by ultra-low load indentation , 1998 .

[8]  K. Katti,et al.  Nanomechanical properties of nacre , 2006 .

[9]  A. Waas,et al.  Ultrastrong and Stiff Layered Polymer Nanocomposites , 2007, Science.

[10]  G. Mayer,et al.  Rigid Biological Systems as Models for Synthetic Composites , 2005, Science.

[11]  Ludwig J. Gauckler,et al.  Bioinspired Design and Assembly of Platelet Reinforced Polymer Films , 2008, Science.

[12]  Judith E G J Wijnhoven,et al.  Seeded growth of monodisperse gibbsite platelets to adjustable sizes. , 2005, Journal of colloid and interface science.

[13]  I. Zhitomirsky.  Electrophoretic deposition of organic–inorganic nanocomposites , 2006 .

[14]  O. Velev,et al.  On-chip micromanipulation and assembly of colloidal particles by electric fields. , 2006, Soft matter.

[15]  I. Zhitomirsky,et al.  Cathodic electrodeposition of ceramic and organoceramic materials. Fundamental aspects. , 2002, Advances in colloid and interface science.

[16]  A. Philipse,et al.  Aqueous dispersions of colloidal gibbsite platelets: synthesis, characterisation and intrinsic viscosity measurements , 1998 .

[17]  Tzung-Hua Lin,et al.  Electrophoretic deposition of biomimetic nanocomposites , 2009 .

[18]  G. Pharr,et al.  An improved technique for determining hardness and elastic modulus using load and displacement sensing indentation experiments , 1992 .