| Abstract: | A molecular theory of phase transitions in fatty acid monolayers at the air/water interface is proposed based on rotational ordering of molecules about their longitudinal axes. The first order statistical mechanical lattice model of Bell, Mingins, and Taylor (BMT ) which is an equilibrium diluted Ising model is used to describe the monolayer behavior of some simple aliphatic carboxylic acids. The interaction energy parameters in the BMT model are adjusted to give reasonable agreement with the experimentally observed chain length dependence, and the energies thus obtained are compared with those calculated for interacting aliphatic carboxylic acid dimers by the technique of perturbative configuration interaction using localized orbitals (PCILO ). It is concluded that intermolecular rotational ordering due to the anisotropy of the intermolecular potential plays a significant role in simple fatty acid monolayer phase behavior. A possible experimental test of the model is briefly described. |
