Characterization of Zirconium Phosphate/Polycation Thin Films Grown by Sequential Adsorption Reactions

Monolayer and multilayer thin films consisting of anionic α-zirconium phosphate (α-ZrP) sheets and polycations (poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH), cytochrome c) were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ellipsometry, UV−visible absorbance spectroscopy, reflectance FT-IR, XPS, and X-ray diffraction. Titration and powder X-ray diffraction experiments confirm that exfoliation of α-ZrP begins to occur when enough tetra(n-butylammonium) hydroxide (TBA+OH-) has been added to exceed single-layer packing of TBA+ ions (x ≈ 0.50) in the intercalation compound Zr(HPO4)2-x(TBA+PO4-)x·nH2O. The identical contrast of many sheets in TEM micrographs suggests that the suspension is un…