Porphyrin lanthanide complexes for NIR emission

This review deals with the NIR emission of lanthanide cations sensitized by porphyrin derivatives acting as antenna. The critical literature survey revealed mainly two design strategies based on either the direct complexation of the Ln(III) cations by the tetraazacore of the porphyrin or by peripheral ligands covalently connected to the porphyrin backbone. For the reported examples, the design principles, structural analysis and photophysical studies are presented and discussed. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.