Preparation and characterisation of conductive Langmuir–Blodgett films of amphiphilic pyridinium–ni(dmit)2 salts

Abstract

The behaviour of (N-octadecylpyridinium)–Ni(dmit)₂ at the air/water interface has been investigated, and Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films have been built up on a variety of substrates. LB layers deposited from freshly spread, floating films are composite structures, containing aggregates of micrometre dimensions. True monolayers are obtained only if the floating film is left for several hours on the subphase surface in its uncompressed state. The spectroscopic and electrical properties of both types of LB film are reported. For the composite layers, stable, in-plane do conductivity values of up to 0.2 S cm^–1 are obtained after doping in iodine vapour. However, LB films built up from floating monolayers are not conductive, either in their as-deposited state or following iodine doping.