Kazh Brito
Harvey Mudd College Mathematics 2007
| Thesis Proposal: | Hole Closure in Langmuir Fluid Monolayers |
|---|---|
| Thesis Advisor: | Prof. Andrew J. Bernoff |
| Second Reader: | Prof. Shenda Baker |
Hole Closure in Langmuir Fluid Monolayers
Langmuir layers form when an amphiphilic polymer is introduced into a fluid. The hydrophilic end will be attracted to the bulk substrate, while the hydrophobic end will be pushed out of the fluid. As a result, a molecularly thin monolayer forms on top of the fluid. These layers often exhibit two-dimensional analogues of the phases of three-dimensional media. This can lead to domains of lower concentration (gas), in larger domains of higher concentration (liquid). Though at times such conditions can be held at equilibrium, often line tension, a 2-D analogue to surface tension, will drive the closure of these "holes". Previous models treated the holes as vaccuums, ignoring any gas effects inside, and modelled the behavior.My model replaces the vaccuum with a more accurate gas model, and attempts to recover some of the physics lost by the previous assumptions.