QUANTITATIVE-EVALUATION OF MOLECULAR-ORIENTATION IN THIN LANGMUIR-BLODGETT FILMS BY FT-IR TRANSMISSION AND REFLECTION ABSORPTION-SPECTROSCOPY

By a comparison of infrared reflection-absorption (RA) and transmission intensities, a method for the quantitative evaluation of molecular orientation in thin Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films has been developed. The enhancement factors for the RA to transmission absorption intensities of hypothetical isotropic films were theoretically calculated by using Hansen's optical formulas for thin multilayer films. By combination of these values with the experimentally determined intensity ratios of the RA to transmission spectra for uniaxially oriented LB films, the orientation angles of the transition moments of major infrared bands were evaluated. Application of this method to the 7-monolayer LB film of cadmium stearate deposited on Ag (for RA measurements) and on ZnSe (for transmission measurements) substrates gave reasonable tilt angles for the molecular chain as compared to those reported by other investigators and to the data from the X-ray analysis. This method will be discussed in detail and the various factors which influence the accuracy of the orientation analysis will also be covered. © 1990 American Chemical Society.