OPTICAL SENSING OF AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS USING LANGMUIR-BLODGETT-FILMS OF A SCHIFF-BASE COORDINATION POLYMER

Aromatic hydrocarbon sensing has been successfully demonstrated using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of a 5,5'-methylenebis (N-hexadecylsaliclidenamine) Schiff base complex. T he LB layers were exposed to concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethan ol and water vapours. This resulted in a reversible shift in the reson ance depth and position of the SPR curves. The co-ordination polymer w as found to be most sensitive to benzene and could reliably detect con centrations of this vapour down to 100 vapour parts per million. (C) 1 998 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.