Supramolecular Assembly and Headgroup Effect in Interfacial Organized Films (II): A Study of Some Single Chain Amphiphiles

Abstract

Some single chain Schiff bases amphiphiles with different substituted headgroups have been designed and their interfacial phase behaviors and coordination with Cu(II) ions were investigated. It has been found that depending on the size of aromatic headgroups, the formed nanostrucures showed obvious differences, indicating different aggregation behaviors in the Langmuir-Blodgett films. The spreading Cu(II)-coordinated films could be transferred and subsequently characterized by spectral methods and morphological measurement. In addition, during the coordination process of ligand with Cu(II) ions in organized molecular films, some conformational change of long alkyl chains was observed. The present work showed clearly the headgroup effect of amphiphiles on regulating the aggregation behaviors in Langmuir-Blodgett films.

Keywords:

• Headgroup effect
• Langmuir-Blodgett films
• single chain amphiphile
• supramolecular assembly

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (20903078), the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (B2009000347), the Support Program for Hundred Excellent Innovation Talents from Universities and Colleges of Hebei Province (CPRC020), the Scientific Research Plan of the Education Department of Hebei Province (Z2009146), and the Doctoral Foundation of Yanshan University (B360).