Lung surfactant and a tear film lipid layer are examples of biologically relevant macromolecular structures found at the air-water interface. Because of their complexity, they are often studied in terms of simplified lipid layers, the simplest example being a Langmuir monolayer. Given the profound biological significance of these lipid assemblies, there is a need to understand their structure a...

We report on the counter intuitive reversible crystallisation of two-dimensional monolayer of Trisilanolisobutyl Polyhedral Oligomeric SilSesquioxane (TBPOSS) on water surface using synchrotron x-ray scattering measurements. Amphiphilic TBPOSS form rugged monolayers and Grazing Incidence X-ray Scattering (GIXS) measurements reveal that the in-plane inter-particle correlation peaks, characterist...

Hexagonally ordered arrays of polystyrene (PS) microspheres were prepared by a modified air-water self-assembly method. A detailed analysis of the air-water interface self-assembly process was conducted. Several parameters affect the quality of the monolayer colloidal crystals, i.e., the colloidal microsphere concentration on the latex, the surfactant concentration, the polystyrene microsphere ...

Gold nanoparticle (Au NP) mirrors, which exhibit both high reflectance and electrical conductance, were self-assembled at a [heptane + 1,2-dichloroethane]/water liquid/liquid interface. The highest reflectance, as observed experimentally and confirmed by finite difference time domain calculations, occurred for Au NP films consisting of 60 nm diameter NPs and approximate monolayer surface covera...

Despite their lack of thermodynamical stability, nanoemulsions can show a remarkable degree of kinetic stability. Among the various different preparation methods the phase-inversion concentration method is particularly interesting as it occurs spontaneously. Here we investigate such a system composed of a surfactant, cosurfactant, and oil that upon dilution with water forms long time metastable...

2014 We first deduce the rigidity coefficient K of a surfactant monolayer at the oil water interface from ellipsometric measurements. For our surfactant monolayer containing alcohol, we find unusually small values of K (K ~ kB T). We then study the oil microemulsion and water microemulsion interfaces, covered with the same film. On the microemulsion side of the film we find a perturbed zone, th...

The two-dimensional material phosphorene has become a focus of the scientific community recently. On the basis of molecular dynamics simulations, we utilize phosphorene as a model material to study the behavior of water molecules confined by two phosphorene plates with nonflat surfaces. As the relative position of the two plates changes, the water molecules first stay in a melting process at 23...

Highly active and low-cost electrocatalysts for water oxidation are required due to the demands on sustainable solar fuels; however, developing highly efficient catalysts to meet industrial requirements remains a challenge. Herein, we report a monolayer of nickel-vanadium-layered double hydroxide that shows a current density of 27 mA cm(-2) (57 mA cm(-2) after ohmic-drop correction) at an overp...

Flow at an air-water interface is limited by drag from both the two-dimensional surface and three-dimensional subphase. Separating these contributions to the interfacial drag is necessary to measure surface viscosity as well as to understand the influence of the interface on flow. In these experiments, a magnetic needle floating on a monolayer-covered air-water interface is put in motion by app...