Europium Schiff-base ligands

Mono- and bimetallic lanthanide complexes of the tren-based macrobicyclic Schiff base ligand [L58]3- have been synthesized and structurally characterized (Fig. 15), and their photophysical properties studied (90,91). The bimetallic cryptates only form with the lanthanides from gadolinium to lutetium due to the lanthanide contraction. The triplet energy of the ligand (ca. 16,500 cm-1) is too low to populate the terbium excited state. The aqueous lifetime of the emission from the europium complex is less than 0.5 ms, due in part to the coordination of a solvent molecule in solution. A recent development is the study of d-f heterobimetallic complexes of this ligand (92) the Zn-Ln complexes show improved photophysical properties over the homobinuclear and mononuclear complexes, although only data in acetonitrile have been reported to date. 

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