Clay templating Langmuir–Blodgett films of a nonamphiphilic ruthenium(II) complex

We fabricated hybrid Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films of smectite clays and a metal complex (tris(4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline)ruthenium(II) perchlorate) which has no long alkyl chain. Characteristics of films fabricated on an aqueous suspension of synthetic saponite were compared with films fabricated on an aqueous suspension of natural sodium montmorillonite by means of nonlinear and linear optical spectroscopy, pressure–area (π–A) isotherm measurement and atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM studies revealed that the homogeneity of a hybrid LB film fabricated on an aqueous suspension of synthetic saponite is considerably higher than that of a film fabricated on an aqueous suspension of montmorillonite.