Langmuir-Blodgett film technology

Wong, H. E., Langmuir-Blodgett Film Technology in the Development of Selective Chemical Sensors, Ph. D. Thesis, University of Toronto, 1987. 

Films spread at liquid-liquid interfaces or on liquids other than water are discussed followed by the important effects of charged monolayers on water. Finally, the most technologically important application of Langmuir films, the Langmuir-Blodgett film deposited on a solid substrate, is reviewed. 

Langmuir-Blodgett films may have value in many applied areas of traditional interest to the industrial chemist, such as adhesion, encapsulation, and catalysis. The permeability characteristics of monolayer assemblies may also find application as synthetic membranes for ultrafine filtration, gas separation, and reverse osmosis. For example, Albrecht et al. (44) proved the eflSciency of polymeric diacetylene monolayers on semipermeable supports in reducing the flow of CH4. One interesting possibility lies in using LB monolayers as lubricants in magnetic tape technology. Unpublished reports have indicated that frictional coeflScients can be reduced markedly when the tape is coated with a few monolayers. In applications such as those listed previously, difiSculties may well be encountered with the mechanical stability of the films. To date, relatively little research has been carried out in this area. 

The present paper is aimed to construct and characterize the lipid multicomponent films onto a solid surface by a Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technology. The goal of the work was to compare the interaction of cholesterol or quercetin-3-O-palmitate (Q3P) with membrane lipids at different alcohol concentrations to prove lateral domains formation as a result of molecular association and to understand preferable cholesterol affinity. 

J.A. Zasadzinski, R. Viswanathan, L. Madsen, J. Gamaes and D.K. Schwartz, Langmutr-Blodgett Films, Science 263 (1994) 1726. (Comprehensive overview of the progress made in LB technology with SPM, in terms of film structure, stability, and the substrate influence on these. Speeifle results for Langmuir-Blodgett films of fatty acids.)... 

Different layered substances on solids Self-assembly structures at interfaces Solid surfaces Langmuir-Blodgett films Thin-film technology... 

Furthermore, insofar as additive action is concerned, the films of interest are oriented films. Our particular interest is in such films formed on the adsorbing surface by the additive which is dissolved in the liquid carrier fluid of the lubricant. These are the films which are found in everyday technology, in contradistinction to Langmuir-Blodgett films which are deposited on the solid surface by transfer of a preformed layer from the water surface of a film balance and which, despite their interesting properties, may be regarded as artifacts, as was pointed out by Zisman [5] in a review of the relation between wettability and the nature of adsorbed films. 

---