The hydrogen-bonded polymer complex thin film of poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline) (PEOX) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) was fabricated with layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly. The film shows exponential growth at early stage and transfers to linear growth after 10 assembling cycles, and the stable thickness increment per assembling cycle in the linear region could be higher than 100 nm. The film growth should be related with polymer chain diffusion during LbL assembly. The effects of assembling time, rinsing time, temperature, pH value, concentration and molecular weight on the thin film growth were investigated. Increasing the assembly time, the temperature and the concentration is favorable to produce the thick film. Prolonging rinsing time is good for preparing smooth film. The film can be constructed below pH 4.5 while the prepared film will not completely dissolve until pH value elevates to 7.0. Molecular weight has a subtle effect on the PEOX/PAA film growth. The PEOX-PAA pair that has a big molecular weight contrast shows fast film growth in the linear region.
Keywords: hydrogen bonding; layer-by-layer assembly; poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline).