Structural characterization of the interfacial self-assembly of polyelectrolytes

Figure 1: a: We performed a long term membrane formation for a single case (0.1% w/w chitosan, 0.1% w/w PFacid , f= 0.5 Hz, γ=0.03%) in order to perform a strain sweep on a thick membrane and define the limits of linear elastic regime. B: We observed that for long term formed membranes (>24 hours) the linear elastic regime was limited to surprisingly low values of strain (<0.1 % ). The direct microscopic observation of the membrane decorated with tracing particles during the strain sweep experiments showed that this highly non-linear behaviour was caused by wrinkling instability of the membrane. The deformation of ≈ 20 % lead to the rapid decline in Gi. The direct observation showed that it was caused by the loss of connectivity between the membrane and the bicone.