Fabrication and characterization of multilayered assemblies based on polyelectrolytes and hybrid systems with carbon nanomaterials for applications in nanofiltration and as smart surfaces.

Abstract

The main goal of this thesis was the study of multilayered assembled structures of polyelectrolytes solely (i) or combined with carbon nanomaterials (ii) in order to use them for specific applications such as nanofiltration membranes and smart surfaces; (i) Physico-chemical studies of PEMs stability in different media, assembly of the multilayers in extreme ionic strength conditions and studies of different growth regimes by choosing different pairs of polycations and polyanions have been performed (ii) In combination with carbon nanomaterials hybrid materials have been also created. On the one hand, together with carbon nanotubes developing an intermediate layer acting as a spacer between commercial porous supports and PEMs with nanofiltration properties in water filtration treatments was developed. On the other hand, a new approach was meant to combine polyelectrolytes with graphene oxide producing capsules using erythrocytes as templates with a tuneable content in carbon.