First Tribo-Excited Chemical Reaction of a Stacked Lanthanide Coordination Polymer with an in Situ Reaction Monitor.

A tribo-excited chemical reaction using a stacked lanthanide coordination polymer is demonstrated for the first time. The polymer is composed of a EuIII ion, hexafluoroacetylacetonato ligands, and an anthracene-based phosphine oxide bridge. The tightly stacked structure with hydrogen bonding was characterized by X-ray crystal structure analysis. The mechanical stimulus leads to tribo-excited oxidation in the EuIII coordination polymer. Electron ionization mass spectroscopy and photo-spectroscopic analysis reveal that the chemical product afforded by tribo-oxidation is different from that obtained by photo-oxidation.