Thermodesorption of LB-multilayers of metal stearates

Thermodesorption of stearate multilayers containing different metal ions was investigated by Interference-enhanced Reflection (IeR) and Nomarsky microscopy. Heating of samples in air leads to desorption of stearyl chains and to formation of metal oxide clusters. A new approach to build controlled structures was made by preparing a surface with neighbouring hydrophobic and hydrophilic areas. It is shown that arranging inorganic particles in a predetermined way is possible.