Developing Langmuir-Blodgett strategies towards practical devices

Several industrially important aspects of functionalized surfaces are discussed including applications to artificial membranes, patterning materials, thin film optical devices, and displays. Special attention is focused on the design of nanostructured surfaces by update of Langmuir-Blodgett method. The potentialities of the method of horizontal precipitation of monolayer films for the formation of artificial membranes are demonstrated, and the formation of "raft" domains resulting in the self-organization of lipids in a monolayer is reported. Also, many approaches to flexible polymeric support modification using specially developed LB equipment are described, including examples dealing with the effective ways of capsulation of drugs, formation of hybrid structures, and surface patterning, from the standpoint of medical or plastic electronic applications. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.