We are very interested in physicochemical properties and potential applications of thin films. The main area of interest are Langmuir-Blodgett films formed by unusual building blocks. Polymers, nanoparticles, quantum dots, biomolecules and even the whole organisms (bacteriophages) are studied. Experiments are performed with Langmuir-Blodgett trough produced by Nima 712BAM/Narrow (UK). The surface pressure at constant temperature together with surface potential (Treckinc. US) and BAM (NFT-NanofilmTechnologie GmbH, Germany) images (resolution of 8.3 μm per pixel) are measured as function of the surface of the trough. The whole system is placed on an active anti-vibration table (Standa, Lithuania) and closed in a plexiglas box to protect the films against dust and air-currents. Recently we equipped the system with specially designed setup for collecting the UV-Vis and fluorescent spectra directly from the air/water interface.
Supporting techniques are available in the lab, i.e. spin coating (Laurell, US), layer-by-layer deposition (dip coating) and quartz crystal microbalance measurements QCM 200 (SRS, US). Within the Institute of Physical Chemistry we have access to scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), X-ray reflectivity measurements (XRR), X-ray photoelectron scattering (XPS), PM-IRRAS spectroscopy and ellipsometry.
Recently we are very interested in mixing the material chemistry with biology to create a two way bridge, i.e. utilizing biomolecules and organisms for preparation of functional nanomaterials and design and production of novel materials for molecular biology and microbiology.