Molecular Electronics:
The Future of Electronics

Electrostatic Self-Assembly

The process of electrostatic self-assembly is as follows. The negatively charged rod is dipped into the cationic solution, it is rinsed with water, then dipped into the anionic solution, followed by another rinsing in water. A cationic solution is made of ions with a positive charge (such as sodium), whereas an anionic solution has negatively charged ions (such as chlorine). Remember that negative and positive charges are attracted to each other. The electrostatic force between the two solutions is how the self-assembled structures stay together. This process repeats until an appropriate thickness is achieved for whatever purpose the self-assembled structure is meant to have.

Let's move on to Chemical Self-Assembly or back to Molecular Self-Assembly

© 2006 M. Busuttil, I. Kandikov, M. Lubrick, J. Mutus, J. Nantais