Comparison of Photophysical Properties of Lanthanide(III) Complexes of DTTA- or DO3A-Appended Aryl-2,2'-Bipyridines

New Tb(III) and Eu(III) complexes based on aryl-2,2'-bipyridine ligands with a cyclic DO3A chelating unit appended in the alpha position of the bipyridine core were synthesized. The photophysical properties of these complexes were compared with those of complexes of ligands with identical aryl-2,2'-bipyridine chromophores, but with an acyclic DTTA residue as an additional chelating site in the alpha position of the bipyridine core. The nature of the polyaminocarboxylic acid fragments was found to have a significant influence on the luminescence. For some of the Eu(III) complexes, upon the transition from acyclic DTTA-to the cyclic DO3A-appended ligands, a noticeable increase in the intensity of Eu(III) luminescence was observed, with an increase in the quantum yield of up to 2.55 times. In contrast, for most of the Tb(III) complexes, a similar transition resulted in a noticeable decrease in the luminescence intensity of the Tb(III) cation.

Automated summary

New Tb(III) and Eu(III) complexes were synthesized using aryl-2,2'-bipyridine ligands with a cyclic DO3A chelating unit appended in the alpha position of the bipyridine core. Photophysical properties of these complexes were compared with those of complexes of ligands with an acyclic DTTA residue. The influence of the polyaminocarboxylic acid fragments on the luminescence was significant, with an increase in quantum yield observed for Eu(III) complexes and a decrease in luminescence intensity for Tb(III) complexes.