Morphological analysis of the effects of ions and ultraviolet light on colloidal monolayers at the air-water interface

The formation of fractal aggregates under the external influence of ions or ultraviolet light has been observed in colloidal monolayers trapped at the air-water interface. A morphological analysis of this is reported in this paper. These fractals have many characteristics similar to those observed in other experiments where electrolyte was added to the bulk. However, they exhibit behavior, such as restructuring, particular to the external influence. In most cases the aggregating system displayed scaling analogous to spinodal decomposition, but with the measured fractal dimension (which depends slightly on the external influence) entering in place of the usual spatial dimension. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).