The Epitaxial Growth of the Methyl Triacontanoate Crystal

Methyl triacontanoate (MT) was deposited on the cleavage face of the KCl crystal in vacuo. The MT film was composed of V-shaped crystals growing along two directions crossing at 32°, and these crystals intersected at right angles to each other. The bisectional direction of the V-shaped crystals corresponds to the [110] direction of the substrate crystal. The electron-diffraction pattern from the film consisted of the reflection spots corresponding to the (hkl)s planes of the subcell and the series of 00l reflections in the small-angle region. The crystal structure of the deposited MT crystal was monoclinic in form. The (110) plane of the MT crystal was oriented parallel to the substrate (001) plane, and its c-axis was parallel to the [110] direction of the substrate crystal. The V-shaped crystal was explained by the molecular arrangement in the epitaxial growing crystals. When the substrate was kept at a higher temperature than the melting point of MT, the deposit coagulated to disk-like crystals whose c-axis was perpendicular to the substrate.