Cage-type ligands

Recent trends in the search for new photosensitizers to be used for solar energy conversion processes are illustrated. Particular emphasis is given on the Ru(II)-polypyridlne family, the use of new cyclometalated ligands, and the use of cage-type ligands. 

Different BFCs based on the cage type ligands have been used for Cu-labeling of antibodies (Smith 2004 Di Bartolo et al. 2006) and peptides (Ma et al. 2009 Cai et al. 2009). 

Eu and Tb complexes of cage-type ligands 77 5.3. Metal luminescence efficiency 106... 

In this section we summarize the fundamentals of supramolecular chemistry dealing with encapsulation of cations by cage-type ligands (Lehn 1985, 1988). 

In conclusion, the properties illustrated above show that encapsulation of cations by cage-type ligands can give rise to complexes exhibiting a variety of new properties. Nowadays, these complexes are widely studied because of their importance for applications. These aspects characterize the study presented here, which, as described in sect. 1, focuses on obtaining intense luminescence in solution upon encapsulation of the Eu and Tb + ions by suitable cage-type ligands and on the applications one can develop on the basis of this luminescence. 

In this section we review some photophysical properties of Eu and Tb + complexes of cage-type ligands. In the following, the complexes are named by formulas consisting of the symbol of the metal ion followed by the number used for the ligand. The complexes are presented in different classes defined by the nature of the ligand. The different classes are schematized in fig. 5. 

Encapsulation of the and ions by cage-type ligands was also achieved using functionalized calixarenes. Metal luminescenee properties were studied mostly for complexes of calix[4]arenes, while few results are available for complexes of calix[6]arenes and calix[8]arenes, the latter being dinuclear complexes. Figure 13 shows schematically the calixarene ligands of the Eu and Tb complexes examined. Some photophysical data and the number of coordinated solvent molecules of these complexes are gathered in table 4. 

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