Long-chain branching surface area

Structure of Surface Layers The adsorption of fatty adds onto polar surfaces has been widely studied, and it usually results in a layer with the carboxyl group at the surface and the hydrocarbon chains oriented vertically to the surface. If the surface is microscopically smooth enough, and the chains sufficiently long, then the layer can be considered as semicrystalline. When packed in this way, the area occupied at the surface by one molecule of a saturated, linear, fatty add is about 0.21 nm. Fatty acids with branched chains, and those containing unsaturation, do not allow such close packing and hence occupy larger areas. Similar layers are believed to form on... 

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