Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Ionization in Fatty Acid Monolayers on Pure Water

Nature volume 175, pages 644–645 (1955)Cite this article

Abstract

EXPERIMENTS recently carried out in this laboratory suggest that previous determinations of some important properties of monolayers of long-chain fatty acids on water surfaces have been misinterpreted. Former measurements of force–area characteristics1–3 and surface potentials4 show well-defined changes occurring at about the pH at which the carboxyl group is expected to be appreciably ionized, and these changes have been ascribed to the ionization2. We have found that the effects can be caused by impurities in the substrate and that, in fact, ionization has much less effect on the properties of stearic acid monolayers than has been thought previously.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lyons, C. G., and Rideal, E. K., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 124, 323 (1929).

    ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Marsden, J., and Schulman, J. H., Trans. Farad. Soc., 34, 748 (1938).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sasaki, T., and Matuura, R., Bull. Chem. Soc. Japan, 24, 274 (1951).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Schulman, J. H., and Hughes, A. H., Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 138, 436 (1932). Glazer, J., and Dogan, M. Z., Trans. Farad. Soc., 49, 448 (1953).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Anderson, V. G., J. and Proc. Aust. Chem. Inst., 7, 187 (1940).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Tribophysics, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, University of Melbourne,

    J. V. SANDERS & J. A. SPINK

Authors
  1. J. V. SANDERS
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. A. SPINK
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

SANDERS, J., SPINK, J. Ionization in Fatty Acid Monolayers on Pure Water. Nature 175, 644–645 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1038/175644a0

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/175644a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing