[26] Formation of self-assembled polyelectrolyte multilayer nanodots by scanning probe microscopy

We demonstrate that patterned nanodots can be obtained from alternatively self-assembled polyelectrolytes which consist of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) by using atomic force microscopy. The surface potentials are easily reversible as positive or negative depending on the kind of the top polyelectrolyte layer. With the layer by layer growth, the nanodots are formed exactly on the charged area and their thicknesses proportionally increase to the total number of monolayers with a uniform thickness of about 0.5 nm.