ABSTRACT
Work discussed in the last two chapters relate to the dependence of morphology on headgroup coordination for two divalent metal stearates, viz. cobalt and cadmium. Although our results establish the association of defect-free morphology to the “twisted” conformer of bidentate bridged coordination in cobalt stearate yet they do not give systematics of such dependence. In this chapter, we have tried to study the growth mechanism of different divalent metal-bearing amphiphiles and tried to classify them under the general heteroepitaxial growth modes . Further, we have tried to elucidate the underlying reason behind dependence of morphology and on the headgroup structure. To this end one, three and nine MLs each of cadmium stearate (CdSt), zinc stearate (ZnSt), cobalt stearate (CoSt) and manganous stearate (MnSt) were deposited on hydrophilic Si(100) substrate by LB technique, as described in previous chapters. All films were checked for reproducibility. AFM of the films was performed in tapping mode with a silicon cantilever. Scans were performed over several regions of the films for different scan areas. XRR and FTIR spectroscopy in ATR mode were carried out.
