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. The LB layers were exposed to concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethanol and water vapours. This resulted in a reversible shift in the resonance depth and position of the SPR curves. The co-ordination polymer was found to be most sensitive to benzene and could reliably detect concentrations of this vapour down to 100 vapour parts per million. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.