Incorporation of a non-amphiphilic nematic liquid crystal into a host monolayer

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to incorporate non-amphiphilic nematic liquid crystals into stable monolayers at the air/water interface by using amphiphilic host compounds, enabling their transfer and characterization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to form stable monolayers with non-amphiphilic liquid crystals through incorporation into amphiphilic host monolayers.

Findings

Stable monolayers of MBBA achieved with octadecylmalonic acid as host.

Monolayers characterized by surface-pressure/area and surface-potential/area isotherms.

Successful transfer and spectroscopic analysis of the monolayers.

Abstract

Many nematic liquid crystals are not able to form stable monolayers at the air/water interface because of the lack of a polar headgroup. A possible way to obtain a monomolecular film with these compounds is to incorporate them into host monolayers of amphiphilic compounds. Stable monolayers containing a high fraction of the liquid crystal can be obtained. We have prepared stable and transferable monolayers of MBBA (which is not an amphiphilic compound) using octadecylmalonic acid (OMA) as host. The monolayers at the air/water interface have been characterized by measurements of surface-pressure/area and surface-potential/area isotherms. The monolayers deposited on quartz plates have been characterized by determining the transfer ratio and by spectroscopic measurements.