Dl. Allara et al., THE EXISTENCE OF STRUCTURE PROGRESSIONS AND WETTING TRANSITIONS IN INTERMEDIATELY DISORDERED MONOLAYER ALKYL CHAIN ASSEMBLIES, The Journal of chemical physics, 100(2), 1994, pp. 1761-1764
Partial monolayers of uniform length alkyl chains [CH3(CH2)(n)-;n=10-2
1] bonded at constant coverage onto a disordered lattice of silanol gr
oups on amorphous SiO2, exhibit a distinct change in surface wetting b
ehavior for 14 less than or equal to n less than or equal to 17 which
correlates closely with a significant shift in the average conformatio
nal ordering of the chains. These data provide definitive evidence for
the existence of a family of surface-constrained, intermediately orde
red phases of discrete length, flexible chains and imply that broad cl
asses of these families exist.