CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Carbon nanotubes are novel materials that can be used in various technological applications. When these materials can be deposited in a simple way on other materials, it will be possible to create films with enough conductivity for applications, such as electromagnetic shielding and discharge of static electricity. A problem is the difficulty to dissolve or disperse them in common solvents (or aqueous solutions). This property is directly related with the conductivity of nanotubes, as the massive conductivity is given by orbital overlapping of different nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes can be used as components of electronic devices. Conducting polymers have already been used in electronics of low cost (plastic electronics) (Blanchet et al., 2003). An impediment for these uses, which share with carbon nanotubes, is the low processability. Low solubility of both conjugated systems is due to the weak interaction with solvent molecules, and the strong interaction between polymer chains. A way to overcome it is incorporating functional groups, covalently bonded, which interact with solvent. Self-assembly of multilayers is a simple way to create nanostructures. It is based on the occurrence of strong interactions (electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, etc.) between layers and on the use of species with small transnational entropy (macromolecules, nanostructures) and/or configurational (rigid structures). The formation of electrostatically self-assembled multilayers (ESAMU) was proposed by Decher in 1991 (Decher and Hong, 1991a,b). To build ESAMUs with conducting polymers, it is necessary to produce materials with functional groups in order to make them soluble, and able to electrostatically interact with polyelectrolytes.

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