Isostructural series of nine-coordinate chiral lanthanide complexes based on triazacyclononane

James W. Walton, Rachel Carr, Nicholas H. Evans, Alexander M. Funk, Alan M. Kenwright, David Parker*, Dmitry S. Yufit, Mauro Botta, Sara De Pinto, Ka Leung Wong

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

81 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nonadentate ligands based on triazacyclononane incorporating pyridyl-2-phosphinate groups form an isostructural series of complexes with Ln ions in the solid state and in solution. The Ln ion is effectively shielded from the solvent environment. Crystal structures reveal a rigid C 3-symmetric tricapped trigonal-prismatic coordination geometry that is maintained in solution for the methyl and phenylphosphinate series, as shown by multinuclear NMR analysis. Variable-temperature measurements of the field dependence of the water proton relaxivity in gadolinium complexes indicate that these systems exclude solvent from the primary coordination environment and minimize the second sphere of solvation. The electronic relaxation time for the gadolinium methylphosphinate complex has been estimated to be 550 (±150) ps by EPR and NMR methods, compared to values of around 0.30-0.05 ps for the terbium-ytterbium series, deduced by analyzing the field dependence (4.7-16.5 T) of the 31P NMR longitudinal relaxation times. Values are compared with analogous azacarboxylate ligand complexes, supporting a key role for donor atom polarizability in determining the electronic relaxation. Spectral emission behavior in solution of samarium, europium, terbium, and dysprosium complexes is compared, and the resolved RRR-λ and SSS-Δ complexes show strong circularly polarized luminescence. The molecular quadratic hyperpolarizability β HLS has been measured in solution using hyper-Raleigh light-scattering methods, for the whole series of lanthanide complexes of one ligand. The values of β HLS reach a maximum around the center of the series and are not simply dependent on the number of f electrons, suggesting a dominant contribution from the octupolar rather than the dipolar term.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8042-8056
Number of pages15
JournalInorganic Chemistry
Volume51
Issue number15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 6 Aug 2012

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Isostructural series of nine-coordinate chiral lanthanide complexes based on triazacyclononane'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this