Direct Imaging of a collapsed Langmuir monolayer and multilayer formation

초록

Imaging ellipsometry was used to investigate the collapsed region of arachidic-acid monomolecular layers spread on the surfaces of pure water and a CaCl2 solution. We could observe the domain image of a collapsed region caused by over-compressing the Langmuir monolayers beyond the minimal closely-packed molecular area. The thicknesses of the layers obtained from the analysis were approximately integer multiples of the molecular lengths, accounting for the small tilt from the surface normal direction. The thickness of the collapsed region is proposed to depend sensitively on the existence of salt in the water subphase.

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