FABRICATION AND AFM/FFM STUDIES OF C60-CONTAINING POLYELECTROLYTE SELF-ASSEMBLED FILMS

An initial investigation on the roughness and frictional properties of the self-assembled thin films frompolyelectrolytes is presented. Star-shaped C;-poly（styrene-maleic anhydride） was successful prepared. The multilayer thinfilms have been fabricated on mica with diazoresin as the cationic polyelectrolyte and hydrolyzed star-shaped C;-poly（styrene-maleic anhydride） as the anionic polyelectrolyte via self-assembly technique. The crosslinking structure of thefilms is formed from the conversion of ionic bond to covalent bond after UV irradiation. AFM/FFM investigations provideinsights into the roughness and frictional properties on a microscale. The roughness depends strongly on the number of filmlayers in the case of C;-containing films. The frictional forces of the films exhibited a well behaved non-linear relationshipin response to the change of applied load. It supports the prediction of enhanced load-bearing property of C;-containing thinfilms.