Langmuir, 24 (2), 441 -447, 2008. 10.1021/la702107e S0743-7463(70)02107-8
Web Release Date: December 13, 2007

Copyright © 2007 American Chemical Society

Bilayer and Trilayer Crystalline Formation by Collapsing Behenic Acid Monolayers at Gas/Aqueous Interfaces

Wei Bu* and David Vaknin*

Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011

Received July 17, 2007

In Final Form: October 12, 2007

Abstract:

X-ray reflectivities and grazing incidence X-ray diffractions of behenic acid (BA) monolayers compressed to the collapse region reveal that the resulting structures are reproducible and exhibit a high degree of order. The structures of the collapsed monolayers depend on the subphase solution. On pure water, the collapsed monolayer forms a stable crystalline trilayer structure. For monolayers spread on Ca2+ solutions, we find that an inverted bilayer structure is formed; that is, stretched BA-Ca-BA (calcium dibehenate, with calcium ions bridging the polar headgroups) forms a monolayer with the hydrophobic tails in contact with the water surface.


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