Construction and electrochemistry of Langmuir-Blodgett films of fullerene lipid composite/hybrid materials.

Studies of the electrochemistry of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of C70/artificial lipids including tridodecylmethylammonium bromide (3C12N+Br-, 1), didodecylphosphate (2C12PO4H, 2), and dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC, 3) and of LB films of a fullerene lipid (4) bearing triple alkyl chains on a C60 moiety on electrodes were carried out in aqueous media. Stable Langmuir monolayers of fullerene C70/artificial lipid composites and the fullerene lipid (4) were formed at the air-water interface and these monolayers were transferred onto electrodes as LB films. Here, we focus on the importance of cationic matrix lipid films to the facile electrochemistry of C70 embedded in a LB film of cationic lipids on an electrode in aqueous media. On the basis of the electrolyte dependence and the charge dependence of the matrix lipids, a possible electron-transfer mechanism of the C70/artificial lipid LB film-modified electrodes is presented. Electrochemistry of a LB film of 4 was also obtained in an aqueous medium. We demonstrate that the introduction of the chemistry of lipid bilayer membranes to the LB films of fullerenes guides us toward the construction of fullerene/lipid bilayer devices.