SPONTANEOUS SELF-ORGANIZATION VIA CATION-EXCHANGE IN FATTY-ACID FILMSIMMERSED IN AQUEOUS-MEDIA

The spontaneous self-organization of vacuum-deposited films of fatty a cids immersed in electrolyte solutions yield c-suds-oriented multilaye r films of their metal salts. X-ray diffraction, electron takeoff angl e dependent photoelectron spectroscopic studies, infrared spectroscopy , as well as ellipsometric studies have been used to demonstrate the s elf-organization via cation exchange. The solvation of the exchanged c ation causes a swelling which in turn brings about the reorganization, c-axis oriented films of metal salts of lauric acid which cannot be d eposited by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique may now be deposited.