Unimolecular films of lecithin and related compounds

Abstract

It is a significant fact that organic molecules such as lecithin, cholesterol and protein, which are known to occur in the membrane of a living cell are all molecules capable of forming unimolecular films at an air-liquid interface. The importance in this connection of the established work on unimolecular films of organic compounds has been realised by Leathes [1923; 1925] and Adam et at. [1926; 1928; 1929], who have studied films of lecithin and cholesterol on the surface of water. Their results demonstrated the essential difference between the