Fabrication and spectroscopic characterization of Langmuir-Blodgett films with luminescent rare earth complexes of long chain double functional ligands mono-L phthalate (L = hexadecyl, octadecyl and eicosyl).

In this paper, some novel long chain amphiphillic monoester molecules were designed to afford double functions: film-formation ability and luminescent sensitization ability. Subsequently organized molecular films of rare earth complexes with these functional ligands formulated as ML2NO3 were fabricated by the Langmuir-Blodgett film (LB) technology, where RE denotes rare earth ions Eu3+, Tb3+ and Dy3+; L denotes the long chain carboxylic ligands monohexadecyl phthalate (16-Phth), monooctadecyl phthalate (18-Phth) and monoeicosyl phthalate (20-Phth). The average molecular area was obtained according to the pi-A isotherms. The layer structure of the LB films was demonstrated by low-angle X-ray diffraction and the average layer spacing was determined from the Bragg equation. UV absorption intensity increases linearly with the number of LB films layers, which indicates that the LB films are homogeneously deposited. The fluorescence spectra of these LB films were quite different from those of their solid complexes. It reveals that the long chain ester ligands are suitable for the excited states of Tb3+ and Dy3+ in the LB films as well as in the solid complexes, but not match with the europium ion in the LB films.