A Calixarene Promotes Disaggregation and Sensing Performance of Carboxyphenyl Porphyrin Films.

The aggregation of a free base porphyrin, -tetrakis(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin and its Zn(II) derivative have been studied at the air/water interface in the presence of a --butylcalyx[8]arene matrix. The mixed Langmuir films were obtained either by premixing the compounds (cospreading) or by sequential addition. The negative deviation from the additivity rule of the cospread films is indicative of a comparatively good miscibility that was further confirmed by Brewster angle microscopy.