Systematic investigation of lanthanide phosphonatoethanesulfonate framework structures by high-throughput methods, Ln(O3P-C2H4-SO3)(H2O) (Ln=La-Dy).

Following the strategy of using polyfunctional phosphonic acids for the synthesis of new metal phosphonates, the flexible organic linker molecule 2-phosphonoethanesulfonic acid, H2O3P-C2H4-SO3H (H3L), was used in a high-throughput (HT) investigation of lanthanide phosphonatoethanesulfonates. Two HT experiments comprising 96 individual hydrothermal reactions were performed to systematically investigate the influence of pH, rare earth ion, molar ratio of Ln3+:H3L, and the counterion in the system LnX3/H3L/NaOH/H2O with X=NO3-, Cl-, and CH3COO-. Whereas under basic conditions Ln(OH)3 is formed, acidic reaction conditions lead to nine isotypic compounds Ln(O3P-C2H4-SO3)(H2O) with Ln=La (1), Ce (2), Pr (3), Nd (4), Sm (5), Eu (6), Gd (7), Tb (8), and Dy (9). The crystal size of the compounds is strongly dependent on the ionic radius of the lanthanides and the pH. No significant influence of the counterions of the rare earth salts is observed. For compounds 1, 2, 4, and 5 the crystal structures could be determined from single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The structures are built up from chains of edge-sharing LnO8 polyhedra that are connected by the phosphonate and sulfonate groups to layers. These layers are linked by the -CH2CH2- group to a three-dimensional framework. The compounds 6 and 8 display luminescence in the visible range (intensity maximum 612 and 544 nm, respectively). Thermogravimetric investigations and temperature-dependent X-ray powder diffraction demonstrate the stability of the crystal structure up to 270 degrees C. Furthermore IR, Raman, and solid-state MAS NMR spectra of 1 and magnetic property measurements of 7 are also presented.