Evidencing the NIR luminescence and longer lifetime from ytterbium complex constructed from perfluorinated β-diketone and heteroatom based ancillary ligand

Abstract

We have designed an ytterbium-based complex with perfluorinated beta-diketone and bidentate nitrogen-based heterocyclic base 2-(1H-Imidazol-2-yl) pyridine, [Yb(fod)3(impy)]. The octa-coordinate structure of [Yb(fod)3(impy)] was confirmed by means of various spectroscopic techniques and theoretical calculations. The photophysical behavior of [Yb(fod)3(impy)] demonstrated characteristic emission in NIR region centered at 978 nm with shoulders at 1006 nm and around 1032 nm. Interestingly, the lifetime obtained for the said complex is amounted to 15 µs and good intrinsic quantum yield 0.75 %. The significant spectroscopic measurements suggest that beta-diketone and ancillary ligand employed in the present work are functioning as an efficient sensitizer for ytterbium ion. The synthesized complex [Yb(fod)3(impy)] could find significant place in designing of NIR OLEDs, lasers, optical-electronic devices, cell imaging purpose owing to the biocompatible feature of Yb (III) complexes as their emission windows are transparent to body fluids.