Accessing Lanthanide-to-Lanthanide Energy Transfer in a Family of Site-Resolved [LnIIILnIII'] Heterometallic Complexes

Abstract

The ligand H3 L (6-[3-oxo-3-(2-hydroxyphenyl)propionyl]pyridine-2-carboxylic acid), which exhibits two different coordination pockets, has been exploited to engender and study energy transfer (ET) in two dinuclear [LnIII LnIII '] analogues of interest, [EuYb] and [NdYb]. Their structural and physical properties have been compared with newly synthesised analogues featuring no possible ET ([EuLu], [NdLu], and [GdYb]) and with the corresponding homometallic [EuEu] and [NdNd] analogues, which have been previously reported. Photophysical data suggest that ET between EuIII and YbIII does not occur to a significant extent, whereas emission from YbIII originates from sensitisation of the ligand. In contrast, energy migration seems to be occurring between the two NdIII centres in [NdNd], as well as in [NdYb], in which YbIII luminescence is thus, in part, sensitised by ET from Nd. This study shows the versatility of this molecular platform to further the investigation of lanthanide-to-lanthanide ET phenomena in defined molecular systems.