Fabrication and spectroscopic properties of Langmuir–Blodgett films of novel zinc complexes with long chain mono (hexadecyl, octadecyl, eicosyl, and docosyl) phthalate

In this paper, some novel long chain amphiphillic monoester molecules were designed to afford double functions: film-formation and luminescent sensitization. Subsequently, organized molecular films of zinc complexes with these functional ligands formulated as ZnL2 were fabricated by the Langmuir–Blodgett film (LB) technology, where L denoted the long chain carboxylic ligands monohexadecyl phthalate (16-Phth), monooctadecyl phthalate (18-Phth), monoeicosyl phthalate (20-Phth) and monodocosyl phthalate (22-Phth). The average molecular area was obtained according to the π–A isotherms. The layer structure of the LB films was demonstrated by low-angle X-ray diffraction and the average layer spacing were obtained according to the Bragg equation. The characteristic luminescence behaviors of LB films have been discussed compared with those of their corresponding solid complexes.