Optical properties of the highly ordered Langmuir–Blodgett film of a strongly luminescent Eu(III) complex

A novel amphiphilic europium(III) complex, tris(α-thenoyltrifluoroacetonato)mono(1-octadecyl-2-(2-pyridyl)benzimidazole) europium(III) (Eu(TTA)3(L18)), was newly synthesized. It formed stable monolayer film on pure water subphase with a limiting area of 0.52 nm2 per molecule. Multilayer Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) film was built onto hydrophilic quartz substrate and characterized by ultraviolet and emission spectroscopy, and low-angle x-ray diffraction analyses. Quite highly ordered structure of the LB film was revealed by the appearance of five sharp Bragg diffraction peaks with half-width at full maximum for the strongest one being only 0.16 Å.