Probing the effect of β-triketonates in visible and NIR emitting lanthanoid complexes

An isomorphous series of lanthanoid complexes containing tribenzoylmethanide (tbm) and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) ligands has been synthesised and structurally characterised. These complexes, formulated as [Ln(phen)(tbm)3] (Ln = Eu3+, Er3+and Yb3+), were compared with analogous dibenzoylmethanide (dbm) [Ln(phen)(dbm)3] complexes to investigate the effect of changing β-diketonate to β-triketonate ligands on the photophysical properties of the complex. The photophysical properties for the Eu3+complexes were similar for both systems, whereas a modest enhancement was observed for Yb3+and Er3+moving from the dbm to the tbm complexes. A detailed study of the NIR photophysical properties was achieved by adapting the integrating sphere method for the calculation of overall quantum yields in the solid state.