Novel approaches to model-free analysis of lanthanide-induced shifts, targeted to the investigation of contact term behavior.

Three novel equations were proposed to perform graphical model-free analysis of lanthanide-induced shifts in NMR spectra of axially symmetrical complexes within Bleaney's T(-2) expansion. Application and efficiency of these newly developed approaches were demonstrated on the example of heteroleptic triple-decker crown-phthalocyaninates (Pc)M[(15C5)(4)Pc]M(Pc), where (15C5)--15-crown-5, (Pc(2-))--phthalocyaninato-dianion, M = Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Y as diamagnetic reference. By construction of these equations, the proposed analytical techniques are more sensitive to variations of hyperfine coupling terms throughout lanthanide series, in comparison with previously developed approaches, becoming a valuable tool for the investigation of structural and electronic characteristics of lanthanide complexes. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011