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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Phase Behaviour of Amphiphilic Monolayers

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Amphiphilic monolayers display a wealth of condensed phases. It is only recently that these have been widely recognised as being distinct, but they are in fact quite analogous to the well-known lamellar gel phases of bulk lyotropic and thermotropic mesogens. An understanding of these phases has proved to be important for controlling the defect structure of the monolayers used in the fabrication of Langmuir-Blodgett films. This understanding is being achieved by developments in a number of techniques, including X-ray diffraction and isotherm miscibility. The phase diagrams of the materials studied so far are all very closely related, lending new credibility to the principle of corresponding states, which although proposed on many occasions, has not until now received much in the way of quantitative confirmation.