Due to the high luminescence intensity, photo- and thermal stability Tb benzoate (Tb(bz)3) is recommended as a perspective EL material. But as the most of the arom. lanthanide carboxylates it is nonvolatile and demonstrates a poor soly. For solving the problem of deposition of thin films of nonvolatile lanthanide carboxylates here the authors demonstrate the original approach based on the exchange reaction of volatile components resulted in the film of nonvolatile carboxylate. The construction of the reactor and deposition conditions was proposed. The bulk product and thin films of Tb(bz)3 was obtained from the gas phase reaction and characterized by the elemental and thermal anal., IR-, luminescence spectroscopy and SEM. The same reaction for the Lu(bz)3 was carried out and the products characterized by 1H NMR. [on SciFinder(R)]