Mono- and Mixed Metal Complexes of Eu3+, Gd3+, and Tb3+ with a Diketone, Bearing Pyrazole Moiety and CHF2-Group: Structure, Color Tuning, and Kinetics of Energy Transfer between Lanthanide Ions
Victoria E. Gontcharenko, Mikhail A. Kiskin, Vladimir D. Dolzhenko, Vladislav M. Korshunov, Ilya V. Taydakov, Yu. А. Belousov
Abstract
Three novel lanthanide complexes with the ligand 4,4-difluoro-1-(1,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)butane-1,3-dione (HL), namely [LnL3(H2O)2], Ln = Eu, Gd and Tb, were synthesized, and, according to single-crystal X-ray diffraction, are isostructural. The photoluminescent properties of these compounds, as well as of three series of mixed metal complexes [EuxTb1-xL3(H2O)2] (EuxTb1-xL3), [EuxGd1-xL3(H2O)2] (EuxGd1-xL3), and [GdxTb1-xL3(H2O)2] (GdxTb1-xL3), were studied. The EuxTb1-xL3 complexes exhibit the simultaneous emission of both Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions, and the luminescence color rapidly changes from green to red upon introducing even a small fraction of Eu3+. A detailed analysis of the luminescence decay made it possible to determine the observed radiative lifetimes of Tb3+ and Eu3+ and estimate the rate of excitation energy transfer between these ions. For this task, a simple approximation function was proposed. The values of the energy transfer rates determined independently from the luminescence decays of terbium(III) and europium(III) ions show a good correlation.