Luminescence spectroscopy of europium(III) and terbium(III) penta-, octa- and nonanuclear clusters with beta-diketonate ligands

A series of Eu(III) and Tb(III) clusters as well as their Y(III) analogues with increasing nuclearities of 5, 8 and 9 have been synthesised using beta-diketonate ligands with decreasing steric hindrance. Their molecular structures have been established from X-ray diffraction on single crystals for most clusters and studied by luminescence and Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectra have distinctive patterns for each nuclearity in accordance with their crystal structure. The luminescence spectra of the Eu(III) and Tb(III) clusters also show distinctive features.