Photophysical properties of novel ternary lanthanide complexes with long chain mono-L cis-butene dicarboxylate (L = hexadecyl, octadecyl and eicosyl) and 2,2'-bipyridyl (or 1,10-phenanthroline).

Maleic anhydride was modified by long chain alcohol (1-hexadecanol, 1-octadecanol and 1-eicosanol) to a novel sort of corresponding long monoester mono-L cis-butene dicarboxylate (L = hexadecyl, octadecyl and eicosyl), i.e. monohexadecyl cis-butene dicarboxylate (MAH), monooctadecyl cis-butene dicarboxylate (MAO), and monoeicosyl cis-butene dicarboxylate (MAE), respectively. Then the some novel ternary lanthanide (Eu3+, Tb3+) complexes with the as-derived long chain monoester and assistant nitrogen-heterocyclic ligands (2,2'-bipyridyl (bipy) and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen)) were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis and IR spectra. The photophysical properties of these complexes were studied in detail with ultraviolet absorption spectra, luminescent excitation and emission spectra and luminescent lifetimes, indicating that the intramolecular energy transfer mechanism runs smoothly within these ternary complexes in terms of sensitized functions of bipy and phen and strong characteristic red or green emissions of Eu3+ or Tb3+ have been achieved.