Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 November 2009
Fatty acids and related compounds
A simple long-chain fatty acid such as n-octadecanoic acid (stearic acid) consists of a linear chain (CnH2n+1) — an alkyl chain — terminating in a carboxylic acid group (COOH). The polar acid head confers water solubility while the hydrocarbon chain prevents it (section 2.2). It is the balance between these two opposing forces that results in the formation of an insoluble monolayer at the air/water interface. Any change in the nature of either the alkyl chain or the polar end group will affect the monolayer properties.
The solubility of fatty acids in water decreases as the length of the alkyl chain is increased. To obtain an insoluble monolayer of a nonionized fatty acid (i.e., the situation at sufficiently low pH values), the molecule must contain at least 12 carbon atoms. For example, n-dodecanoic acid (lauric acid — C11H23COOH) forms a slightly soluble gaseous monolayer at low temperatures. The addition of two more carbon atoms, to form n-tetradecanoic acid (myristic acid), causes the gas phase to condense at low surface pressures and an expanded monolayer phase to be formed (Stenhagen, 1955). If this monolayer is held at a surface pressure of 10 mM m-1 and a temperature of 20°C, then the loss in monolayer area due to solubility in the water subphase is 0.1% min-1.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.