Issue 35, 2017

Self-assembled mesoscopic surface domains of fluorocarbon–hydrocarbon diblocks can form at zero surface pressure: tilting of solid-like hydrocarbon moieties compensates for cross-section mismatch with fluorocarbon moieties

Abstract

At low molecular areas, fluorocarbon–hydrocarbon diblocks (CnF2n+1CmH2m+1, FnHm), when spread as Langmuir monolayers on water, form organized monodisperse circular self-assembled domains, one molecule high and tens of nanometers in diameter. Whether such domains form at high molecular areas (low surface pressures) could until now not be established. Furthermore, the common assumption was that the inner core hydrocarbon chains within these domains were in the liquid state in order to compensate for the difference in the cross-section area between the perfluoroalkyl (∼30 Å2) and alkyl (∼20 Å2) chains. Our IRRAS investigation of F8H16 now establishes (1) that these diblock surface domains do exist at the air/water interface at large molecular areas (zero surface pressure), (2) that they remain essentially unchanged throughout film compression, and (3) that the H16 moieties are actually stretched in an all-trans configuration and tilted by ∼30° with respect to the normal to the monolayer in order to satisfy the greater space requirement of the F8 moieties. Consequently, the core of the domains is in an ordered, crystalline-like state, and the domains can be visualized as solid particles at the air/water interface.

Graphical abstract: Self-assembled mesoscopic surface domains of fluorocarbon–hydrocarbon diblocks can form at zero surface pressure: tilting of solid-like hydrocarbon moieties compensates for cross-section mismatch with fluorocarbon moieties

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 ဧပြီ 2017
Accepted
30 မေ 2017
First published
30 မေ 2017

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017,19, 23809-23816

Self-assembled mesoscopic surface domains of fluorocarbon–hydrocarbon diblocks can form at zero surface pressure: tilting of solid-like hydrocarbon moieties compensates for cross-section mismatch with fluorocarbon moieties

C. Schwieger, X. Liu and M. P. Krafft, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 23809 DOI: 10.1039/C7CP02432K

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements