Initially, when the coating has 10 bilayers it is possible to appreciate well-separated AgNPs with a very low roughness of 5.8 nm. However, when the number of bilayers is increased, the roughness is changing from 10.2 nm (20 bilayers) to 23.9 nm (30 bilayers) and 28.7 nm (40 bilayers). It is important to remark that after a thermal treatment, the total

evaporation of the polymeric chains induces an agglomeration of the AgNPs without preserving their distribution along the films. This aspect is corroborated due to a color change from violet to orange in the resultant films. Figure 8 AFM images (25×25 μm) of PAH/PAA-AgNPs (violet coloration) after a thermal treatment as a function of number of bilayers (a) 10 bilayers; (b) 20 bilayers; (c) 30 bilayers and (d) 40 bilayers. In other words, the fact that a higher number of bilayers during the LbL fabrication process, and consequently, a higher ABT-263 research buy thickness of the

resultant films, promote a better definition of the color, mostly in the green coloration (see Figure  9) because of a better entrapment of both initial clusters (hexagons with higher size) and nanometric spherical AgNPs in the multilayer assembly. Additionally, new PAH/PAA-AgNPs coatings of 80 bilayers at pH 7.5 have been fabricated in order to show clearly the final coloration onto the glass slides as a function of the initial synthesized multicolor silver nanoparticles (PAA-AgNPs). Figure 9 Final aspect Loperamide of the PAH/PAA-AgNPs multilayer assembly (violet, green, orange coloration) for a total number of 80 bilayers. Figure  10 shows the UV–vis see more spectra of the samples prepared with this thickness (80 bilayers) and the spectra

reveal that the position of the absorption bands is the same than previous spectra (Figures  3, 4 and 5) but with a considerable increase in intensity of the absorption peaks due to a higher number of the metallic silver nanoparticles that have been incorporated into the multilayer film. Therefore, when the thickness is increased, it is possible to corroborate the presence of the same aggregates species or AgNPs than the original colloidal solutions. In other words, when the thickness is increased, the final coloration of the resultant films (violet, green or orange) is similar than the color of the original colloidal PAA-AgNPs solutions. These results of coloration as a function of number bilayers indicate that a higher thickness leads to a better incorporation of higher size aggregates (clusters) in the resultant films. This is the first time that a study about colored AgNPs synthesis and their incorporation in multicolor films (violet, green or orange) is investigated using the LbL assembly. These multicolor LbL films can be used for optical fiber sensor applications [41].