| Polymer/inorganic nanoparticle hybrid thin films, primarily composed of functional inorganic nanoparticles, are of great interest to researchers because of their interesting electronic, photonic, and optical properties. In the past two decades, layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly has become one of the most powerful techniques to fabricate such hybrid thin films. This method offers an easy, inexpensive, versatile, and robust fabrication technique for multilayer formation, with precisely controllable nanostructure and tunable properties. In this thesis, various ways to control the structure of hybrid thin films, primarily composed of polyelectrolytes and indium tin oxide (ITO), are the main topics of study. ITO is one of the most widely used conductive transparent oxides (TCOs) for applications such as flat panel displays, photovoltaic cells, and functional windows.;In this work, polyethyleneimine (PEI) was used to stabilize the ITO suspensions and improve the film buildup rate during the LbL assembly of poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) and ITO. The growth rate was doubled due to the stronger interaction forces between the PSS and PEI-modified ITO layer. The assembly of hybrid films was often initiated by a polyelectrolyte precursor layer, and the characteristics of the precursor layer were found to significantly affect the assembly of the hybrid thin films. The LbL assembly of ITO nanoparticles was realized on several substrates, including cellulose fibers, write-on transparencies, silicon wafers, quartz crystals, and glasses. By coating the cellulose fibers with ITO nanoparticles, a new type of conductive paper was manufactured. By LbL assembly of ITO on write-on transparencies, transparent conductive thin films with conductivity of 10-4 S/cm and transparency of over 80 % in the visible range were also prepared.;As a result of this work on the mechanisms and applications of LbL grown films, the understanding of the LbL assembly of polyelectrolytes and inorganic nanoparticles was significantly extended. In addition to working with ITO nanoparticles, this thesis also demonstrated the ability to grow bicomponent [PEI/SiO2]n thin films. It was further demonstrated that under the right pH conditions, these films can be grown exponentially (e-LbL), resulting in much thicker films, consisting of mostly the inorganic nanoparticles, in much fewer assembly steps than traditional linearly grown films (l-LbL). These results open the door to new research opportunities for achieving structured nanoparticle thin films, whose functionality depends primarily on the properties of the nanoparticles. |
