In this study, a novel pillar[5]arene-quinoline (P5-Q) as an organic material is used to fabricate Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) thin films and its organic vapor sensing properties have been investigated. The LB deposition process is characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) techniques. The typical frequency shift per layer is obtained as 31.75 Hz per layer and the deposited mass onto a quartz crystal is calculated to be 539.69 ng per layer (2.03 ng mm). The fitted surface plasmon resonance (SPR) data were utilized to calculate the film thickness of this material. The thickness of a single layer is calculated to be 1.26 ± 0.09 nm. QCM and SPR systems are used to investigate gas sensing performance of macrocyclic LB films during exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). The macrocyclic LB thin films are more sensitive to dichloromethane than that of other vapors used in this study. The sensitivity and detection limit performance of the P5-Q QCM sensor to dichloromethane vapor were calculated to be 14.751 Hz ppm and 0.203 ppm, respectively. These results demonstrated that the P5-Q material is promising as an organic vapor sensing device at room temperature. Despite Langmuir-Blodgett being a traditional technique in colloid and interface science, this study presents the first gas sensor application for pillararene LB films. Because of the unique symmetric pillar architecture of P5-Q, self-assembly of pillar[5]arene molecules should afford various characteristic nanometer-scale architectures such as micelles, vesicles, and tubes.

The Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) system is utilized to investigate the relationship between mass uptake and associated swelling for Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) organic thin films obtained from pyrene endcapped polystyrene (PS). The study was carried out using three different molecular weights of polymeric chains. The changes in resonance frequency associated with mass changes can be attributed to the swelling behavior of polymeric thin films during vapor absorption. This swelling is due to the capturing of organic vapor molecules in the sensor environment. To quantify real-time QCM data for swelling, early-time Fick's law of diffusion was adopted to fit the results, and a good linear relationship was observed between the mass uptake and square root of the swelling time. The diffusion coefficients for swelling were thus obtained from the slopes of the fitting curves and was found to be correlation with the amount of organic vapor content in the cell. It was also observed that diffusion of the organic vapor into higher molecular weight polystyrene thin films are much faster than low molecular weight ones in sensor applications. Diffusion coefficients were found to be 0.2-3.0 Â 10 À16, 5.0-13 Â 10 À16, and 1.0-1.6 Â 10 À15 cm 2 /s for PS1, PS2, and PS3 LB thin films, respectively.

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Electrical characteristics of sol-gel derived titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) as insulating layers were investigated by making capacitance and leakage current measurements in metal-insulator-semiconductor configurations. The structure was fabricated by depositing 37 nm thick anatase TiO 2 films on p-type silicon (p-Si) substrates. The frequency dispersion of capacitance was attributed to the leaky behaviour of the TiO 2 dielectrics. Using an equivalent circuit, values of the frequency-independent dielectric constant, interfacial surface density and threshold voltage were estimated to be 13, 3 × 10 14 m −3 and −0.085 V, respectively. The carrier diffusion was found to be primarily responsible for the diode leakage current at room temperature but the increase in the ideality factor with lowering temperature was believed to be due to fluctuations of barrier height at the TiO 2 /p-Si interface.

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Sol-gel derived titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) films are prepared on silicon substrates using the method of spin-coating with different speeds from 1000 to 6000 rpm. Spectroscopic ellipsometric measurements provide dispersion of the refractive index and extinction coefficient within the wavelength range of 300-1000 nm. The behaviour is in agreement with the single oscillator model. Optical absorption is believed to be due to allowed indirect transition over the optical gap of approximately 3.2 eV.

a b s t r a c tWithin this article, we report the characterization and organic vapor sensing properties of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) thin films of calix[8]arenes. Surface pressure-area isotherms show that very stable monolayers are formed at the air-water interface. The LB film could be deposited onto different substrates which allowed the films to be characterized by UV, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The results indicate that good quality, uniform LB films can be prepared with transfer ratios of over 0.95. QCM results showed that the deposited mass of calix[8]arene monolayer onto a quartz crystal decreased from 693 to 204 ng as the number of layers is increased. AFM studies showed a smooth, and void free surface morphology with a rms value of 1.202 nm. The sensing abilities of this LB film towards the development of room temperature organic vapor sensing devices are also studied. Responses of the LB films to various vapors are fast, large, and reversible. It was found that the obtained LB film is significantly more sensitive to chloroform than other vapors. It can be concluded that this molecule could have a potential application in the research area of room temperature vapor sensing devices.

Optical constants and fabrication parameters are investigated using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) studies on spun films of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) derivatives in contact with two different dielectric media. A value of 1.503 for the refractive index of PMMA films produced from a solution having concentration of 1 mg ml −1 at the speed of 3000 rpm is in close agreement with the data obtained from ellipsometric measurements. The film thickness shows a power-law dependence on the spin speed but the thickness increases almost linearly with the concentration of the spreading solution. These results are in good agreement with the hydrodynamic theory for a low-viscosity and highly volatile liquid. On the basis of SPR measurements under dynamic conditions, room temperature response of PMMA films to benzene vapours is found to be fast, highly sensitive and reversible. The sensitivity of detection of toluene, ethyl benzene and m-xylene is much smaller than that of benzene.