Langmuir and Langmuir-Blodgett films of a partially esterified carboxymethyl pullulan

A carboxymethyl pullulan with 1.4 carboxymethyl functions per anhydroglucos e unit has been esterified with bromododecane. The number of dodecyl chains per anydroglucose unit calculated from elemental analysis is 1.15 +/- 0.09 . The partially esterified carboxymethyl pullulan is able to form Langmuir films. Pressure-area isotherms are reproducible, and the film is characteri zed by a very high stability. IR spectroscopy analysis of Langmuir-Blodgett films prepared on subphases with various DT-I confirms that the esterifica tion was not complete. Scanning force microscopy images of a monolayer tran sferred onto muscovite show the great homogeneity of the monolayer. While t he monolayer transferred on muscovite is fragile, multilayers transferred o n CaF2 slides are resistant to mechanical and chemical treatments.