Cation exchange taking place in Langmuir-Blodgett films of fatty acids
deposited on hydrophobic Cu substrates was investigated by plasma des
orption and spontaneous desorption mass spectrometry. Complete cation
exchange was found in plain arachidic acid monolayers. Incomplete exch
ange was found in bilayer and multilayer films of Cd arachidate with t
hicknesses up to 10 monolayers. The fraction of exchanged ions is inde
pendent of the number of layers.