Electrostatic origin of the Frank elastic energy and anisotropic line tension of the domains in monolayers at the air-water interface

Abstract

The free energy of condensed phase domains in monolayers at the air-water interface has been analyzed by taking into account the surface pressure, line tension, and electrostatic energy due to the normal and in-plane spontaneous polarization. We found that this free energy was reduced to the sum of the Frank elastic energy and anisotropic line tension, which were used to reproduce the shapes of domains in fatty acid monolayers, in the limit of small orientational deformation. Domains in monolayers are interesting systems as a meeting point between the physics of liquid crystals and electrostatics.