Design, Characterization and Use of Crystalline Thin Film Architectures at the Air-Liquid Interface

Abstract

of crystalline thin film architectures at the air-water interface. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) using synchrotron radiation has been applied as the key method for structural elucidation of the crystalline films, which are generally composed of amphiphilic molecules. The following topics are covered in these notes. (a) A brief description of GIXD, given in the Appendix; (b) the design of α-amino acid amphiphiles, a racemic mixture of which on water spontaneously separates into two-dimensional (2D) crystalline islands of opposite handedness according to GIXD measurements; (c) the use of amphiphilic monolayers for induced nucleation of molecular 3D crystals at the air-solution interface, with a focus on the induced nucleation of ice; (d) casting light on pathological crystallization of cholesterol, which precipitates in gallstones and atherosclerotic plaques, via the use of GIXD for trapping the cholesterol nucleation process.