Functional metallomacrocycle derivatives and their polymers. Part 23. Biaxially orientated Langmuir–Blodgett films of substituted metallophthalocyanines

Abstract

Soluble metallophthalocyanine compounds (M = Ni^II or Cu^II) with alkyloxycarbonyl groups substituted at either the 2 or 3 position of the benzene ring (alkyl = 1- or 2-octyl, or 1-decyl) were synthesized by the reaction of the corresponding metallophthalocyaninetetracarboxyl chlorides with the alkyl alcohols, and monolayers were formed at a water–air interface. All compounds formed stable monolayers at surface pressures higher than ca. 15 mNm^–1. In the Langmuir–Blodgett films built up from monolayers of the compounds on Pyrex substrates, the orientation of the phthalocyanine rings was shown to be biaxial from the one-dimensional orientation of the phthalocyanine stacked columns, observed by measurement of polarized visible absorption spectra.