Fabrication and characterization of heteropolyanion Langmuir–Blodgett films

Abstract

The possibility of the formation of Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films with dimethyldioctadecylammonium (DODA) after the addition of cobalt(II)-substituted Dawson-type tungstodiphosphate anion (briefed as (H2O)CoIIP2W17O618−) in the subphase has been explored. Marked modifications of the compression isotherms are observed when this anion is dissolved in the subphase, which demonstrates that the polyanions interact with the monolayers. LB films have been readily obtained from this system. The adsorption Fourier transform IR (FT IR) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) have been used to investigate the morphological and molecular structure of the deposited film. The FT IR results showed the presence of the polyanion within the LB films, and the shift for its characteristic bands may be related to the presence of positively charged DODA. AFM measurement reveals that the LB films of DODA/(H2O)CoIIP2W17O618 are regularly and uniformly deposited on the substrate. XRD experiments prove that the lamellar structure of the LB films of DODA/(H2O)CoIIP2W17O618 − is well-defined. The LB films of DODA/(H2O)CoIIP2W17O618 − immobilized onto an indium-oxide (ITO) glass, in aqueous solutions of pH 2.0–5.0, show quite facile redox reactions even for multilayers. All the experiments carried out in the present study suggest that the new materials of heteropolyanions can be formed by LB techniques and beneficial physico-chemical properties of heteropolyanions can be maintained/enhanced through molecular-level design.