Crystallinity of the double layer of cadmium arachidate films at the water surface

A crystalline counterionic layer at the interface between an electrolyte solution and a charged layer of insoluble amphiphilic molecules was observed with grazing incidence synchrotron x-ray diffraction. Uncompressed arachidic films spread over 10(-3) molar cadmium chloride solution (pH 8.8) spontaneously form crystalline clusters with coherence lengths of approximately 1000 angstroms at 9-degrees-C. Ten distinct diffraction peaks were observed, seven of which were attributed to scattering only from a crystalline Cd2+ layer and the other three to scattering primarily from the arachidate layer. The reflections from the Cd2+ layer were indexed according to a 2 X 3 supercell of the arachidate lattice with three Cd2+ ions per cadmium unit cell.