Langmuir films of amphiphilic crown ethers

We have used X-ray reflectivity and grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction to study amphiphilic crown ethers 1 and 2 at the air-water interface. A new sy nthetic route was employed, which substantially reduced the level of impuri ties. Unlike previous studies of 1, we saw no evidence of a first-order lyi ng-down to standing-up transition of the alkyl tails. We did observe in bot h compounds a gradual reorientation of the tails away from the interface as the film was compressed, followed by an irreversible collapse to a multila yer structure. The monolayer films have a fluid-like inplane structure, whi le the multilayer films are crystalline.