Optical parameters of calix[4]arene films and their response to volatile organic vapors

The Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique was employed to produce thin LB films using an amphiphilic calix-4-resorcinarene onto different substrates such as quartz, gold coated glass and quartz crystals. The characteristics of the calix LB films are assessed by UV-visible, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measurements. UV-vis and QCM measurements indicated that this material deposited very well onto the solid substrates with a transfer ratio of >0.95. Using SPR data, the thickness and refractive index of this LB film are determined to be 1.14 nm/deposited layer and 1.6 respectively. The sensing application of calixarene LB films towards volatile organic vapors such as chloroform, benzene, toluene and ethanol vapors is studied by the SPR technique. The response of this LB film to saturated chloroform vapor is much larger than for the other vapors. The response is fast and fully recoverable. It can be proposed that this sensing material deposited onto gold coated glass substrates has a good sensitivity and selectivity for chloroform vapor. This material may also find potential applications in the development of room temperature organic vapor sensing devices. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.