Interfacial Binding of Divalent Cations to Calixarene-Based Langmuir Monolayers

The interactions of Langmuir monolayers produced through the self-assembly of an amphiphilic p-carboxycalix[4]arene (1) with a series of divalent, fourth-period transition metals, at the air–water interface, were investigated. Changes in the interfacial behavior of 1 in response to the presence of CuCl2, CoCl2, MnCl2, and NiCl2 were studied by means of Langmuir compression isotherms and Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). The measurements revealed that the self-assembly properties of 1 are significantly affected by Cu2+ ions. The interactions of 1-based monolayers with Co2+ and Cu2+ ions were further investigated by means of synchrotron radiation-based X-ray reflectivity (XRR), X-ray near-total-reflection fluorescence (XNTRF), and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD). XNTRF and XRR analyses revealed that the monolayer of 1 binds more strongly to Cu2+ than Co2+ ions. In the presence of relatively high concentrations of Cu2+ ions in the subphase (1.4 × 10–3 M), XNTRF exhibited anomalous depth profile behavior and GIXD measurements showed considerably strong diffuse scattering. Both measurements suggest the formation of Cu2+ clusters contiguous to the monolayer of 1.