Interfacial Nanostructures and Photoelectric Properties in Self-Assembled Cholesterol Amide Derivative Langmuir-Blodgett Films

Cholesterol is widely used in the field of amphiphilic self-assembly as a small organic molecular structural unit. In this article, new cholesterol amide derivative (CHAM) films via molecular self-assembly technology have been successfully prepared. Scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, UV-Vis spectra, atomic force microscopy (AFM), contact angle and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were measured to characterize the morphology and nanostructure of the prepared self-assembled CHAM Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films. The obtained experimental data revealed that different subphases played an important role in formation of a stable LB film, resulting in different assembly behavior. CHAM contains adamantane units and highly symmetrical tricyclic aliphatic hydrocarbon clusters, so it can combined with cyclodextrin through host-guest interact, for CHAM act as host and cyclodextrin containing a hydrophobic cavity act as guest. The morphology of single-layer Langmuir films with different subphases was characterized by AFM, indicating that the CHAM molecules formed a stable LB films on the surface of the pure water subphase, cyclodextrin subphase and cyclodextrin polymer subphase. The photoelectric properties were characterized by J-V characteristics, EIS response and impedance map, and it was found that the CHAM film had better photoelectric properties.