STUDY ON THE SELF-PACKING OF SNO2 NANOPARTICLES AT THE AIR-HYDROSOL INTERFACE AND ITS COMPOSITE LB FILMS WITH ARACHIDIC ACID

SnO2 nanoparticles were found to self-pack at the air-hydrosol interfa ce and form a nanoparticulate film. The self-packed films were observe d under a Brewster angle microscope, and investigated by recording the time evolution of surface pressure and pi-A isotherms. The results sh ow that SnO2 nanoparticles take 3 h to form a complete film at the air -hydrosol interface. Composite monolayers of SnO2 and arachidic acid w ere obtained by spreading arachidic acid onto a fresh hydrosol surface . Composite Y-type LB films were transferred from the air-hydrosol int erface onto substrates, and characterized by FTIR, UV-vis, X-ray diffr action spectroscopy and TEM techniques. The results show that the comp osite films have good structure, with SnO2 nanoparticles uniformly and compactly distributed in the arachidate matrix. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sci ence S.A. All rights reserved.