Figure 1.

A schematic illustration of LbL self-assembly process. First, a charged substrate is immersed in a solution consisting of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes to form the first monolayer via absorption. Then, followed by a washing step to remove the weakly bound or unbound species and prevent cross contamination of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes. After that, the monolayer-coated substrate is immersed in another solution of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes to form the second monolayer via absorption. This process is repeated until the desired multilayers are formed. PEMs: formulate polyelectrolyte multilayers.