Inter- and Intralayer Energy Transfer in Zirconium Phosphate-Poly(allylamine hydrochloride) Multilayers: An Efficient Photon Antenna and a Spectroscopic Ruler for Self-Assembled Thin Films

摘要

Molecular self-assembly provides a useful synthetic route to many interesting supramolecular structures and devices. Co-valent and ionic self-assembly methods have been used to make multilayer thin films with cooperative electronic and optical properties, including electroluminescence, second-harmonic generation, and photoinduced electron transfer. Because these effects depend critically on supramolecular structure, an important goal is to develop simpler and more reliable techniques for juxtaposingthe active components--photoactive and electroactive molecules--in well-defined structural arrangements. Another Ongoing challenge is the development of better tools for characterization of these assemblies on the nanometer length scale. Probes such as ellipsometry, X-ray diffraction, and UV--vis spectroscopy provide information that is averaged over macroscopic dimensions and are often unable to differentiate between possible structures.