“…This central role of the lattice has since been confirmed for a variety of surfactants with wide differences in headgroup chemistry and molecular geometry. 30,31,45,47,53,55,57,58 Unlike hydrophilic surfaces, graphite interacts primarily with surfactant tailgroups via hydrophobic and van der Waals interactions. It has long been known that the graphite surface adsorbs and orients alkyl chains along its three equivalent symmetry axes, with the alkyl chain following the zigzag line connecting nearest-neighbor carbon atoms on graphite.…”