Growth of Double-Chained Cationic Surfactant Films on Mica

The evolution of adsorbed dialkyl chained quaternary ammonium surfactant films with different alkyl chain lengths has been observed in situ using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Both di-C12DAB and di-C14DAB form a cohesive bilayer immediately, which is observed to strengthen with equilibration time. The slow equilibrium of di-C16DAB allows examination of the film at less than saturated coverage and reveals growth of the bilayer through the nucleation and coalescence of patches. The difference in height between higher and lower regions is insufficient for bilayer and monolayer regions and the postulated structure is that of regions of bilayer with different packing densities. The effect of temperature on film morphologies near the gel transition is also examined.