Luminescent Properties of Europium Complexes with Different Long Chains in Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) Films

A series of europium(III) complexes with different chain length, tris [2-m-pyridylmethanamido-5-phenyl- (1,3,4)-oxadiazole] mono [2-(4-n-alkylphenyl)-iminazole (4,5-f)-1,10-phenanthroline] Eu(III) [Eu(PMA)3Nn (n = 6, 10, 14,18)] were synthesized. All of these amphiphilic europium(III) complexes could form stable Langmuir film at air/water interface and could be transferred onto hydrophilic quartz and mica substrates by measurement of UV spectra in which the absorbance of the LB films at about 288 nm scales showed the linearity with the number of layers deposited. In order to investigate relation between fluorescence properties and the arrangement of molecular in LB films, surface topography of monolayer films were observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Results showed that the emission spectra have Eu(III) characteristic peaks and strong emission strength. It is interesting that the molecular with looser arrangement in LB films has better monochromacity, which illustrated that energy might transferred more easily from ligand to Eu(III) in loosen structure films.