10.1016/S0277-5387(02)01405-5
This research focused on the development of luminescent ternary complexes using crown ether lanthanide complexes as building blocks. The purpose was to overcome the low absorption coefficients of lanthanides by introducing light-harvesting centers (LHCs) to sensitize the lanthanide emission, thereby enhancing the photophysical properties of Eu(III) and Tb(III) complexes, which emit red and green light, respectively. The study involved the use of macrocyclic ligands 1,10-diaza-4,7,13,16-tetraoxacyclooctadecane-N,N?-diacetic acid (H2(dacda)) and 1,4,7,10-tetraoxa-13-azacyclopentadecane-13-acetic acid (H(macma)), along with mono- or bi-dentate aromatic carboxylates and dibenzoylmethide as LHCs. The research concluded that the europium(III) and terbium(III) complexes of dacda and macma indeed had available coordination sites for the formation of ternary complexes in aqueous solutions, with sensitization of the luminescence signal reaching up to 250-fold upon the addition of LHCs. The flexibility of the carboxylate arms of the crowns and the different charges of the crowns were identified as factors affecting the control of ternary complex formation and the strength of LHC binding, which in turn influenced the sensitization of the lanthanide luminescence signal.