Polyelectrolyte multilayers gain their importance from their applicability to a wide variety of functional building blocks. The ability to create these multilayers as laterally nano-patterned films, which has only been scarcely investigated so far, augments the functionality of the multilayer and makes it valuable for applications that require nanoscale features or periodic arrangement, such as photonic devices, catalytic surfaces, and biomedical applications. In this study we reveal how the lateral confinement imposed by block copolymer nano-domains in thin film templates affects the assembly of the deposited poly electrolyte layers at different ionic strengths, and how the combined effects of nano-confinement and ionic strength dictate the final structure of the multilayer. These fundamental insights provide the basis for successful construction of nano-patterned, functional coatings. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploiting the full potential of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles for advanced nanotechnological applications requires their organization into predefined structures with high orientational control. Nanofabrication approaches that combine high resolution lithography and self-assembly afford the advantages of accurate placement, compositional diversity, and reduced production costs. This review concentrates on the creation of organized nanoparticle superstructures assisted by recent developments in the directed self-assembly of block copolymers, and delineates possible applications. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The construction of nano-sized, two-dimensionally ordered nanoparticle (NP) superstructures is important for various advanced applications such as photonics, sensing, catalysis, or nano-circuitry. Currently, such structures are fabricated using the templated organization approach, in which the templates are mainly created by photo-lithography or laser-lithography and other invasive top-down etching procedures. In this work, we present an alternative bottom-up preparation method for the controlled deposition of NPs into hierarchical structures. Lamellar polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridinium) thin films featuring alternating stripes of neutral PS and positively charged P2VP domains serve as templates, allowing for the selective adsorption of negatively charged gold NPs. Dense NP assembly is achieved by a simple immersion process, whereas two-dimensionally ordered arrays of NPs are realized by microcontact printing (mu CP), utilizing periodic polydimethylsiloxane wrinkle grooves loaded with gold NPs. This approach enables the facile construction of hierarchical NP arrays with variable geometries. Copyright (C) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.