Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 25, 2026

A Technique to Functionalize and Self-assemble Macroscopic Nanoparticle-ligand Monolayer Films onto Template-free Substrates
Published on: May 9, 2014
Langmuir films of chiral molecules on mercury
Abstract:
Homo- and heterochiral Langmuir films of a chiral derivative of stearic acid are studied in situ on the surface of liquid mercury as a function of surface coverage by surface tensiometry and surface-specific synchrotron X-ray diffraction and reflectivity. A transition from a phase of surface-parallel molecules to a phase of standing-up molecules is found. The former shows no surface-parallel long-range order. The standing-up phase of both homochiral and heterochiral compositions exhibit long-range order. However, the former has an oblique unit cell with parallel molecular planes, and the later has a centered rectangular unit cell with a herringbone molecular packing. For both cases, the standing-up molecules are tilted by 44 degrees from the surface normal and pack at a density of 19.5 A(2)/molecule in the plane normal to the molecular long axis. Important differences are found, and discussed, between this behavior and that of a Langmuir film of the nonchiral stearic acid on mercury.
More Related Videos
09:43Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
Published on: August 13, 2019
06:28Self-Assembly of Hybrid Lipid Membranes Doped with Hydrophobic Organic Molecules at the Water/Air Interface
Published on: May 1, 2020
Related Concept Videos
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Fischer Projections
Prochirality