the multilayer films discussed in this editorial are prepared by an approach known as layerbylayer assembly. this coating method, which is a type of dipcoating procedure, was first described by iler in the 1960s 1. it was later developed by decher and lvov for oppositely charged polyelectrolytes and other charged molecules 2, and by rubner and yang 3 and sukhishvili et al. 4 for polymer complexes stabilized by hydrogen bonds. many different materials can be incorporated into multilayer films, as iler noted.
