Nanoaggregate shapes at the air/water interface

Abstract

Chiral interfaces and molecular recognition phenomena are of special interest not only for the understanding of biological recognition processes but also for the potential application in material science. Langmuir monolayers at the air–water interface have successfully been used as simple models to mimic biological phenomena. Recent experimental studies revealed that both chirality and molecular recognition processes of amphiphiles are controlling the features of the nano-aggregates at the air/water interface. The objective of experimental studies has been to gain information about the properties of mesoscopic length scale aggregates obtained on the basis of chiral discrimation effects and the formation of supramolecular entities by molecular recognition of non-surface active species dissolved in the aqueous subphase. Differences in the two-dimensional morphology and lattice structures of the nano-aggregates cannot be explained by macroscopic theories and needed information about the detailed orientation and distance dependence of the intermolecular interaction within the aggregates. First new bottom–up studies have been directed toward understanding the driving forces for the aggregation processes of monolayers. Different types of interactions have been successfully considered using semi-empirical quantum chemical methods. The possibilities of Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) patterning to be an alternative paradigm for large-area patterning with mesostructured features are discussed.