Lanthanide anthracene complexes: slow magnetic relaxation and luminescence in DyIII, ErIII and YbIII based materials

Abstract

Four mononuclear lanthanide complexes, [Ln(depma)₂(H₂O)₆]Cl₃·xH₂O·yCH₃OH [Ln = Dy (1Dy), x = 6, y = 0; Gd (2Gd), x = 3, y = 1; Er (3Er), x = 6, y = 0; Yb (4Yb), x = 3, y = 1; depma = 9-diethylphosphono-methylanthracene], are reported and structurally characterized. The octa-coordinated environment of Ln^III is composed of two oxygen atoms from two different depma ligands and six oxygen atoms from each bound water molecule. All four complexes show photoluminescence in the solid state at room temperature, originating from the ligand-centered emissions of depma. Furthermore, slow magnetization relaxation is found in 1Dy, 3Er and 4Yb with the energy barriers (U_eff) of 40.5 K (1 kOe), 9.8 K (1 kOe) and 28.9 K (0.75 kOe), respectively.