Changes in permeability and in mechanical properties of layer-by-layer films made from poly(allylamine) and montmorillonite postmodified upon reaction with dopamine.

Polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) films present a versatile surface functionalization method allowing to address many applications. These coatings suffer; however, from weak mechanical properties this problem can be addressed by the regular incorporation of clays in the layering process. To allow for an even better control of a whole set of film properties, among them their thermal stability, their stability in water, and their impermeability to anions, we postmodify (PAH-MMT)(n) films with polydopamine, by putting the pristine PEM films in contact with an oxygenated dopamine solution.

Diffusion of polyphosphates into (poly(allylamine)-montmorillonite) multilayer films: flame retardant-intumescent films with improved oxygen barrier.

The present paper relies on the original idea to design multifunctional coatings, and in particular highly efficient intumescent flame retardant coatings, based on the diffusion of polyphosphates (PSPs) in exponentially growing "layer-by-layer" films made from montmorillonite (MMT) and poly(allylamine) (PAH). Here, we used polyphosphates as an acid source, polyallylamine as both a carbon source and a swelling agent, and finally clays to reinforce the intumescent char strength and also for their oxygen barrier property. The coatings made from the alternated deposition of n = 60 layer pairs of PAH and MMT reach a considerable thickness of ∼18 μm with well-defined ordering of the MMT in the direction parallel to the substrate.