Langmuir, Vol.35, No.18, 6129-6136, 2019
Controlling Nucleation in Quasi-Two-Dimensional Langmuir Poly(L-lactide) Films through Variation of the Rate of Compression
We studied morphological changes in a quasi-two-dimensional Langmuir film of low molar mass poly(L-lactide) upon increasing the surface density, starting from randomly distributed molecules to a homogeneous monolayer of closely packed molecules, followed by nucleation and growth of mesoscopic, three-dimensional clusters from an overcompressed monolayer. The corresponding nucleation density of mesoscopic clusters within the monolayer can be tailored through variation of the rate of compression. For a given surface density and temperature, the nucleation probability was found to increase linearly with the rate of compression, allowing to adjust the density of mesoscopic clusters over nearly 2 orders magnitude.