Semiconductor and metal nanoparticle formation on polymer spheres coated with weak polyelectrolyte multilayers

Abstract

We report the in situ formation of semiconductor and metal nanoparticles (NPs) on colloid particles precoated with weak polyelectrolyte multilayers. Poly(acrylic acid) (PAA)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) multilayers were assembled on the colloid spheres by the layer-by-layer technique and by exploiting copper ions as templating entities, as demonstrated by us earlier (Adv. Fund. Mater. 2003, 13, 929). Metal sulfide and metallic nanoparticles (NPs) were formed within PAH/PAA multilayers assembled on the polymer spheres by the adsorption of metal ions onto uncompensated functional groups of the polyelectrolytes (carboxylate or ammonium moieties), followed by reaction with hydrogen sulfi..