In this contribution we show application of multispectral confocal laser scanning microscopy for visualisation and characterisation of polyelectrolyte microcapsules. Fluorescent labels of different free charges, specifically bound by electrostatic interactions to the polymer chains in polyelectrolyte microcapsules, were used for questioning the spatial distribution of polymer components of the microcapsules. To separate the overlapping emission spectra of the fluorescent labels spectral imaging and linear unmixing approaches was used.
We applied atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the surface topography of the supported thin films of various composition: hexadecanethiol (HDT), poly(amidoamine) dendrimers (PAMAM) of first generation (G1), mixture of HDT þ G1, glucose oxidase (GOX) and HDT þ G1 þ GOX layers. The AFM image of dendrimers in air revealed dome-shaped, randomly distributed aggregates of the size from 100 to 200 nm. GOX adsorbed on the gold support also formed aggregates of the diameter between 700 -900 nm and height up to 36 nm. The AFM images of the HDT þ G1 þ GOX layer in air revealed smooth surfaces with irregular pinholes, although these were corrugated in the buffer. Application of the voltage of þ 670 mV to the layers during one hour resulted in significant increase of the surface root means square roughness (R rms ). The electrical properties of G1 layers studied by cyclic voltammetry do not differ substantially from bare gold electrode, while HDT þ G1 mixed layers revealed intermediate electrical properties between HDT and G1. Immobilization of GOX onto the HDT þ G1 resulted further decrease of the layer permeability.
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