Deposition of thin multilayers of titanium arachidate and 10,12-pentacosadiynoate using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique

Multilayered thin films of titanium arachidate and 10,12-pentacosadiynoate were deposited by employing the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Stable monolayers of titanium arachidate were formed on an aqueous subphase and were transferred onto a substrate by a vertical dipping process as Y-type multilayers at 23 degrees C. Lowering of the subphase temperature to 10 degrees C led to Z-type deposition. In the case of diynoate, only Z-type deposition was observed at subphase temperatures of 10 degrees C as well as 23 degrees C. The multilayer films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy analysis and UV-visible and Fourier transform IR (FTIR) spectroscopy. The XRD results revealed that the multilayers of both arachidate and diynoate do not contain any defined layer spacing. FTIR results indicate that the film deposited at higher pH of 6.1 consists of a mixture of the acid and the arachidate salt. UV irradiation of diynoate LB films resulted in polymerization, indicating the presence of crystalline domains in these LB films.