Synthesis, Crystal Structures, and Luminescence Properties of Carboxylate Based Rare-Earth Coordination Polymers

Rare-earth coordination polymers or lanthanide-organic frameworks with hitherto unreported crystal structures have been obtained on the basis of the light lanthanides Pr, Nd, Sm, and Eu in combination with terephthalic acid and using a slightly altered literature synthesis procedure. Rietveld refinement has shown that powder XRD patterns of such compounds are largely dominated by the positions of the heavy elements, pointing to isostructural networks for all four terephthalate-based materials. An in-depth luminescence study has been performed on the reported MOFs, showing rare praseodymium and samarium emission in the visible spectrum, aside from the strong europium luminescence and the near-infrared emission from both a terephthalate and 2,5-pyridinedicarboxylate based neodymium-MOF.