Adsorption of Polyions on Flat TiO₂ Surface

Abstract

In this study, the surface properties of Ti/TiO2 substrate before and after the adsorption of polyelectrolytes were investigated. As model polyelectrolytes, strongly charged polycation poly(diallyldimethylammonium) (PDADMA) and strongly charged polyanion poly(4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) were used. Initially, the bare titanium substrate was characterized by means of ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and measurements of inner surface potential using crystal electrode (CrE). It was shown that the substrate surface is very smooth with the roughness of 3.5 nm and oxide layer thickness of 3.8 nm. After the adsorption of PDADMA and PSS, polyelectrolyte-coated titanium surface was examined using the above-mentioned methods under the same conditions. It was found that both PDADMA cations and PSS anions form a stable polymeric nanofilm on Ti/TiO2 surface that partially covers the surface, without significant impact on the surface roughness. The corrosion protection effectiveness values indicate that the corrosion properties were greatly enhanced upon polyion adsorption and polyelectrolyte coating formation on the flat TiO2 surface. The obtained results were additionally confirmed by inner surface potential measurements. According to the methods employed, PDADMA nanofilm modification offers enhanced corrosion protection to the underlying titanium material in sodium chloride electrolyte solution.

Keywords

• titanium/titanium dioxide surface
• polyelectrolytes
• ellipsometry
• atomic force microscopy
• cyclic voltammetry
• electrochemical impedance spectroscopy