A Systematic Study of the Photophysical Processes in Polydentate Triphenylene-Functionalized Eu3+, Tb3+, Nd3+, Yb3+, and Er3+ Complexes

Abstract

m-Terphenyl-based lanthanide complexes functionalized with a triphenylene antenna chromophore ((Ln)1) exhibit sensitized visible and near-infrared emission upon photoexcitation of the triphenylene antenna at 310 nm. Luminescence lifetime measurements of the (Eu)1 and (Tb)1 complexes in methanol-h1 and methanol-d1 revealed that one methanol molecule is coordinated to the lanthanide ion, indicating that all eight donor atoms provided by the ligand are involved in the encapsulation of the lanthanide ion. The luminescence lifetimes of the near-IR-emitting complexes (Er)1, (Nd)1, and (Yb)1 in DMSO-h6 and DMSO-d6 are in the microsecond range, and are dominated by nonradiative deactivation of the luminescent state. The processes preceding the lanthanide luminescence in the sensitization process have been studied in detail. The complexed lanthanide ion reduces the antenna fluorescence and increases the intersystem crossing rate via an external heavy atom effect. The subsequent energy-transfer process was found to take place via the antenna triplet state in all complexes. Luminescence quantum yield measurements and transient absorption spectroscopy indicated that in solution two conformational isomers of the complexes exist: one in which no energy transfer takes place, and one in which the energy transfer does take place, resulting in the lanthanide luminescence. The intramolecular energy-transfer rate is higher in the (Eu)1 and (Tb)1 complexes than in the near-infrared-emitting complexes. In methanol the energy-transfer rate is 3.8 × 107 s-1 for (Eu)1 and (Tb)1. In DMSO-d6 the intramolecular energy-transfer rate is higher in the (Nd)1 complex (1.3 × 107 s-1) than in the (Er)1 (3.8 × 106 s-1) and (Yb)1 (4.9 × 106 s-1) complexes.