From micro- to nanometric scale patterning by Langmuir–Blodgett technique

Laterally ordered structures were built up in solid-supported monolayers by employing the Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) technique. The structures were obtained on mica by two different strategies. The first exploits instability phenomena connected to the LB transfer. This strategy allows to generate periodic channels, about 200 nm wide, in dimyristoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) monolayers transferred on mica. The second strategy consists of assembling amphiphiles having large and strongly mutually interacting heads. In this case, quercetin palmitate (QP) molecules were used to build up nanometric periodic fibers in micrometric domains. The switching between conventional LB monolayers and the laterally featured ones is easily controlled by a careful tuning of few experimental conditions like subphase temperature, film pressure and upstroking speed. Dynamic scanning force microscopy (SFM) was employed to inspect the structural features.