(PDDA/SiO2) thin films that consisted of positively charged poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) and negatively charged SiO2 nanoparticles were fabricated on a glass substrate by an applying voltage layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly method. In this study, the microstructure and optical properties of the (PDDA/SiO2) thin films coated on glass substrate were measured as a function of the applied voltage on the Pt electrodes. When 1.0 V was applied to a Pt electrode in a PDDA and SiO2 solution, the thickness of the (PDDA/SiO2)10 thin film increased from 79 nm to 166 nm. The surface roughness also increased from 15.21 nm to 33.25 nm because the adsorption volume of the oppositely charged PDDA and SiO2 solution increased. Especially, when the voltage was applied to the Pt electrode in the SiO2 solution, the thickness increase of the (PDDA/SiO2) thin film was larger than that obtained when using the PDDA solution. The refractive index of the fabricated (PDDA/SiO2) thin film was ca. n = 1.31~1.32. The transmittance of the glass substrate coated by (PDDA/SiO2)6 thin film with a thickness of 106 nm increased from ca. 91.37 to 95.74% in the visible range.
TiO2 thin films consisting of positively charged poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride)(PDDA) and negatively charged titanium(IV) bis(ammonium lactato) dihydroxide(TALH) were successfully fabricated on glass beads by a layer-by-layer(LBL) self-assembly method. The glass beads used here showed a positive charge in an acid range and negative charge in an alkaline range. The glass beads coated with the coating sequence of(PDDA/TALH)n showed a change in the surface morphology as a function of the number of bilayers. When the number of bilayers(n) of the(PDDA/TALH) thin film was 20, Ti element was observed on the surface of the coated glass beads. The thin films coated onto the glass beads had a main peak of the (101) crystal face and were highly crystallized with XRD diffraction peaks of anatase-type TiO2 according to an XRD analysis. In addition, the TiO2 thin films showed photocatalytic properties such that they could decompose a methyl orange solution under illumination with UV light. As the number of bilayers of the(PDDA/TALH) thin film increased, the photocatalytic property of the TiO2-coated glass beads increased with the increase in the thin film thickness. The surface morphologies and optical properties of glass beads coated with TiO2 thin films with different coating numbers were measured by field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and by UV-Vis spectrophotometry(UV-vis).