The amphiphilic complex bis[2-(N-hexadecylcarbamoyl-8-hydroxyquinoline]magnesium (MgL2) forms stable monolayer on pure water subphase and can be easily fabricated as stable uniform Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films. Low-angle X-ray diffraction measurements showed MgL2 LB films had good homogeneity with a bilayer thickness of ca. 4.92 nm. Anisotropy of conductivity was observed in the LB film. The in-plane conductivity parallel to the compression direction on quartz substrate and the vertical conductivity on ITO glass is found to be 4.50 x 10(-5) and 2.44 x 10(-9) S/m, respectively. Organic electroluminescent devices with a single layer structure (ITO/emitting layer (LB films)/Al) were constructed using MgL2 LB films as the emitting material. The number of the layer of LB films and the deposited surface pressure had strong influence on the EL intensity and break-down voltage of the EL devices.