Probing the effect of the capping polyelectrolyte on the internal structure of Layer-by-Layer decorated nanoliposomes

Layer-by-Layer Nanoassemblies for Vaccination Purposes

“…Moreover, the LbL method can be exploited for coating any kind of substrate, independently of their size, shape, or chemical nature, which contributes to increase the versatility and impact of this methodology [ 1 ]. In fact, even though the LbL method was initially introduced for manufacturing films using as substrates, or templates, traditional flat macroscopic surfaces, including silicon wafers, quartz plates, or glass slides, among others, it was quickly developed to manufacture nanostructured materials in any solvent accessible substrate, which makes it possible to use as substrates colloidal micro- and nanoparticles, liposomes or vesicles, micelles, fluid interfaces (floating multilayers), emulsion droplets, or even cells [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. It should be noted that the substrate chosen as template for the assembly of LbL materials can play different roles depending on their properties.…”

“…To date, there is a deep theoretical and experimental knowledge about different aspects of LbL materials, including the dependence of the adsorbed amount on the number of adsorbed bilayers, and their potential application. However, there are other aspects, e.g., physico-chemical bases, driving the assembly of LbL materials and their properties, that are less understood, even though they are of paramount importance for establishing correlations between the internal structure and molecular properties of LbL nanoassemblies [ 33 , 80 , 81 ]. These are strongly dependent on the different variables controlling the assembly process of LbL materials, e.g., charge density of the assembled compounds and of the substrates, concentration, polyelectrolyte molecular weights, ionic strength, solvent quality for the building blocks, pH, and temperature [ 82 ].…”