What is it about?
The luminescence properties of lanthanide(III)dipicolinato compounds have been studied in great depth; however, our knowledge of SmIII with the dipicolinato ligand is rather limited. From mixtures of dipicolinato ligand and samarium(III)triflate solutions two different compounds were found to crystallise, with the amount present depending on the pH. Even though both samarium(III)diplicolinato compounds are nine-coordinated and were found to be best described by a tricapped trigonal prism (TTP) coordination geometry, the compounds exhibit different properties characterised by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and luminescence spectra.
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Why is it important?
The article is a cautionary tale about more than one compound being present, which without knowing about the speciation present, could easily lead to faulty interpretations from the luminescence spectra as these could give indications of only one compound from the crystal field splitting. We suggest that single crystal measurements are the only safe way of creating structure-property correlations for these compounds.
Perspectives
I hope this article inspires people to do further studies concerning the luminescent properties of lanthanide(III) compound speciation, highlighting the importance of solid-state luminescence as a tool. Creating structure-property relations for lanthanide(III) luminescence and the coordination environment relies on the ability of only on compound being present, be it in solution or in a powder, and we therefore advise caution, and would advice using single crystal luminescence as a tool. Furthermore, I hope it would motivate people to do broaden the knowledge of samarium(III) as this is the only way we can advance the understanding of this less analysed lanthanide(III) ion.
Sabina Svava Mortensen
University of Copenhagen
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Crystal structures of two SmIII complexes with dipicolinate [DPA]2− ligands: comparison of luminescent properties of products obtained at different pH values, Acta Crystallographica Section E Crystallographic Communications, June 2023, International Union of Crystallography,
DOI: 10.1107/s2056989023004814.
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