Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) and Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) deposition techniques have been used by many to deposit two-phase monolayers onto a solid substrate be either extruding a hydrophobic substrate perpendicularly through the monolayer (LB) or by bringing a hydrophilic substrate held parallel to the monolayer into contact with the monolayer (LS). One fallback of these techniques is the inability to directly visualize monolayer morphology during deposition, making it more difficult to assert monolayer morphology is preserved. In contrast, the Inverse-Langmuir-Schaefer (ILS) technique uses a hydrophobic substrate held parallel beneath the substrate whereupon the liquid subphase is steadily lowered until contact with the substrate, allowing for direct visualization. Under visualization of the deposition of a two-phase liquid-condensed-liquid-expanded (LC-LE) monolayer, we report dramatic changes in monolayer morphology which occur after deposition including small, condensed phase growths and rapid dendritic growth. We caution against the notion that deposited morphology represents monolayer morphology and suggest direct visual depositions where possible.
