Spontaneous reduction of octadecyltetracyanoquinodimethane at the air-water interface in the presence of amphiphilic cations

Abstract In this paper, we investigated Langmuir-Blodgett films from various (M n (C − ) n )(TCNQC 18 ) nx mixtures (where TCNQC is tetracyanoquinodimethane and C − is a water-soluble inorganic anion (Br − , I − or BF 4 − )). We observed a spontaneous reduction of TCNQC 18 in the mixed films, whereas pure TCNQC 18 films do not show any reduction of this species. A tentative explanation is given in terms of a redox potential scale shift at the air-water interface.