Abstract:
We propose a hydrodynamic mechanism, based on the Marangoni flow, to describe growth instabilities of liquid-condensed islands in the supercooled liquid-expanded phase of two-dimensional Langmuir monolayers. This Marangoni instability is intrinsic to Langmuir monolayers and is not controlled by the expulsion of chemical impurities from the liquid-condensed phase. The hydrodynamic transport of the insoluble surfactants is shown to overwhelm passive diffusion and to provide a mechanism for fingering instabilities. The model can explain the observations by Brewster-angle microscopy of ramified liquid-condensed islands in monolayers that do not contain the fluorescent dye impurities, which are normally believed to be responsible for Langmuir-film growth instabilities.
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Received 21 May 2000 and Received in final form 18 June 2001
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Bruinsma, R., Rondelez, F. & Levine, A. Flow-controlled growth in Langmuir monolayers. Eur. Phys. J. E 6, 191–200 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s101890170001
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s101890170001