Responsive and reactive layer-by-layer coatings for deriving functional interfaces

Abstract

Evolution in biological systems has led to various unique and fascinating properties with astounding complexity guided by mother nature for billions of years. Inspired by nature's design, tailoring functional interfaces with multi-scale hierarchy is of potential interest for current scientific and engineering research owing to their broad range of versatile applications in thriving scientific disciplines like biomedical, surface engineering, nanotechnology, and many more. In comparison to the existing techniques, the layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition method is highly acknowledged for its huge contribution in developing various functional interfaces as this method possesses some extraordinary advantages like versatility, simple preparation procedure, substrate-independent nature, and fine control over both topography and thickness of the coating. The LbL deposited coatings that were either stimuli-responsive or readily and selectively chemically reactive appeared as an emerging approach for deriving various functional interfaces. Here, the progress of stimuli-responsive and chemically reactive multilayer coatings (CRMLCs) has been adequately presented. Thereafter, the various prospective applications of both stimuli-responsive and CRMLCs are introduced in this review.