Monolayer trough

Figure 8. Multicompartment monolayer trough for manipulation of films on the surface. Schematic provided by Dr. S. J. V enty of General Electric Co. and reprinted from Journal of the American Chemical Society 1979, 101, 1. Copyright 1979, American Chemical Society.

The technique of fluorescence spectral measurements has become very sensitive over the past decade. In order to obtain more information on the surface monolayers, a new method based on fluorescence was developed. It consisted of placing the monolayer trough on the stage of an epifluorescence microscope, with doped low concentration of fluorescent lipid probe. Later, ordered solid-liquid coexistence at the water-air interface and on solid substrates were reported. The theory of domain shapes has been extensively described by this method. 

The Brewster angle microscope is positioned over the monolayer trough such that the incident laser beam hits the part of the water surface where the monolayer is present at all stages during the experiment. The surface pressme (n) and (if used) surface potential (AV) transducers also need to be positioned in this segment of the trough. The trough itself may be either commercial or home built in... 

Anotlier metliod applicable to interfaces is tlie detennination of tlie partial molecular area (7 of a biopolynier partitioning into a lipid monolayer at tlie water-air interface using tlie Langmuir trough [28]. The first step is to record a series of pressure 71-area (A) isotlienns witli different amounts of an amphiphilic biopolynier spread at tlie interface. 

Langmuir-Blodgett was the first technique to provide a practical route for the constmction of ordered molecular assembhes. These monolayers, which provide design dexibiUty both at the individual molecular and at the material levels, are prepared at the water—air interface using a hiUy computerized trough (Fig. 1). Detailed discussions of troughs (4) and of surface pressure, 7T, and methods of surface pressure measurements are available (3,6). 

Fig. 1. A trough for deposition of monolayers on soHd substrates A, bath B, a moving barrier C, a motor D, a pressure-control device E, a surface pressure balance F, a motor with a gearbox that lowers and raises the substrate and G, a soHd substrate. The film material (S) has a hydrophobic tail and...

The formation of CdS particles beneath monolayers of A-methyl-p-(p-tetradecyl-oxystyryl)pyridinium iodide, a cationic surfactant with a hemicyanine portion was studied [144]. The monolayers were spread on a circular glass trough coated with paraffin, and the trough was covered by ajar. The CdCL subphase also contained EDTA, so the Cd was... 

FIG. 14 Measurements on monolayers and LB films of CdSe nanoparticles of narrow size distribution (a) II-A isotherms for Langmuir monolayers of CdSe nanoparticles of diameter 2.5 run (curve a), 3.0 mn (curve b), 3.6 mn (curve c), 4.3 mn (curve d), and 5.3 mn (curve e). The area per nanoparticle was determined by dividing the trough area by the estimated number of particles deposited on the surface, (b) Absorbance and photoluminescence spectra of the nanoparticles in solution (A, B) and in monolayers on sulfonated polystyrene-coated glass sbdes (C. D). The nanoparticle diameters are 2.5 nm (curves labeled a), 3.6 nm (curves labeled b), and 5.3 nm (curves labeled c). The excitation wavelengths are (a) 430 nm, (b) 490 nm, and (c) 540 nm. (Reproduced with permission from Ref. 158. Copyright 1994 American Chemical Society.)... 

The second step, Figure 32b, consists of the covering of the styli with cadmium arachidate LB films. Monolayers of arachidic acid (in principle, it is also possible to use stearic or behenic acids with practically the same results) were spread over the surface of 10 " M CdCli water subphase in a Langmuir trough. The monolayer was compressed to a surface pressure of 27 mN/m and transfered onto styli by a vertical dipping technique. Up to six monolayers were deposited. 

FIG. 27 Schematic (not to scale) of the SECM-induced transfer of oxygen across a 1-octadecanol monolayer, at the air-water interface, in a Langmuir trough. 

Monolayers of distearoylphosphatidylcholine spread on the water-1,2-dichloro-ethane interface were studied by Grandell et al. [52] in a novel type of Langmuir trough [53]. Isotherms of the lipid were measured at controlled potential difference across the interface. Electrocapillary curves derived from the isotherms agreed with those measured under the true thermodynamic equilibrium. Weak adsorption or a stable monolayer was found to be formed, when the potential of the aqueous phase was positive or negative respectively, with respect to the potential of the 1,2-dichloroethane phase [52]. This result... 

Hysteresis was generally observed in the compression-expansion cycles of the force-area isotherms, indicating that the timescale for relaxation of the fully compressed film back to its expanded state was slower than the movement of the barrier of the Langmuir trough. Our studies, like many others, imply that monolayers are metastable and that reversible thermodynamics can only be applied to their analysis with caution. 

Because the adsorbed HM-HEC molecules exhibit such slow rates of chain reorientation, the effects of molecular weight, amount of hydrophobic substitution and chain lengths of the hydrophobes on the interfacial properties of HM-HEC monolayers can be investigated by two kinds of dynamic experiments hysteresis and stress-jump, using a Langmuir trough film balance. 

An HM-HEC monolayer at the air/aqueous interface was formed by adsorption from an aqueous solution of the polymer placed in the Langmuir trough overnight. In "stress-jump" experiments, HM-HEC monolayers were placed under rapid compression to a large degree and surface pressure was measured as a function of time after compression was stopped. (The compressional "jumps" required a minute or two to complete, and in some cases were on the order of the polymer monolayer relaxation times. See later section for discussion). In hysteresis experiments, the adsorbed monolayers were subjected to continuous compression-expansion cycles at a specific speed, while surface pressure was determined as a function of surface area. 

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