LB film of hybrid polyoxometalate: Sm-POM encapsulated with dodecyltrimethylammonium cation

Polyoxometalates (POMs) have high potential applications in various fields such as magnetic nanoparticles, energy transfer, luminescence, catalysts and antiviral chemotherapy. The polyoxometalates with long alkyl groups were synthesized. Sodium cations of SmW10O369− were exchanged the counter ions by dodecyltrimethyl ammonium cations (DDTA) to obtain a hybrid Sm-containing polyoxometalate in which hydrophilic polyoxometalate cores are encapsulated by hydrophobic shells. The Langmuir-Blodgett film was fabricated from the hybrid POM. The hybrid POM layer spread onto water surface exhibited stability against surface pressure up to 50 mN/m. The IR, UV and XPS spectra indicated the presence of hybrid POM structure. The surface images of the hybrid POM LB films were observed by AFM.