Despite the appreciable high color-purity green-light of chiral Tb3+-complexes, it remains a great challenge to enable their both high quantum efficiency and large circularly polarized light (CPL) activity. Herein, through the self-assemble of the chiral Salen-type bis-Schiff-base ligand (S,S)-H2L or (R,R)-H2L with Zn(OAc)2·2H2O and Ln (NO3)3·6H2O (Ln = La, Tb, Gd), two series of chiral Zn(II)-Ln (III)-heterobinuclear enantiomers [Zn ((S,S)-L)Ln (μ1-OAc)(μ2-NO3)2] (Ln = La, 1; Tb, 2; Gd, 3) or [Zn ((R,R)-L)Ln (μ1-OAc)(μ2-NO3)2] (Ln = La, 4; Tb, 5; Gd, 6) were afforded, respectively. Photophysical study shows that the destabilized 3π-π* energy level upon Zn2+ coordination, is confirmed to effectively sensitize of the Tb3+-centered green-light for the two chiral complexes [Zn ((S,S)-L)Tb (μ1-OAc)(μ2-NO3)2] (2) and [Zn ((R,R)-L)Tb (μ1-OAc)(μ2-NO3)2] (5). The merits of efficient (ΦTbL = 5.6–6.2 %) Tb3+-centered green-light and strong CPL activity (|gPL| = 0.03, 5D4→7F3 transition), engender chiral Zn(II)-Tb(III)-Salen complexes like 2 and 5 a new platform to ideal chiral organo-Tb3+ candidates.
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