A NOVEL LANGMUIR-BLODGETT TROUGH AND ITS APPLICABILITY TO DEPOSITION OF FILMS OF VARIOUS FLUIDITIES

A Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) trough has been developed from the 'diamond d esign' previously reported, by fixing two points of the diamond to fac ilitate a modular construction which could also be conveniently adapte d for alternating-layer and Montal-Mueller studies. With biomolecular applications in mind, the trough was deliberately made small; barriers can vary the surface area between 115 cm2 and 17.5 cm2 with a low sub phase volume of about 550 cm3. The surface flow is channelled by shoul ders; this produces near-normal flow at an LB substrate, and yields hi gh quality films for both low molecular mass materials and appropriate polymers with a wide range of surface viscosities.