Luminescent Eu(III) and Tb(III) complexes: developing lanthanide luminescent-based devices

This mini review gives some highlights of the work recently carried out in our research group in Dublin on the developments of lanthanide luminescent devices, where the future goal is to produce devices that can operate as sensors. A few examples demonstrate our design principles for targeting both anion and cations that are of biological or pharmaceutical relevance, where the recognition occurs in aqueous competitive media. We also discuss the possibility of developing mixed f-d metal complexes and conjugates that can be employed as novel supramolecular architectures.