Multicolour lanthanide(III) porous 1D coordination polymers: tunable wide spectrum emission and efficient Cu^II...

Five isostructural 1D porous coordination polymers (PCPs) with a general formula of {[M(L)(DMF)(H₂O)]·1.5H₂O} [M = Tb^III (1), Eu^III (2), Yb^III (3), Nd^III (4) and Er^III (5)] have been synthesized using a flexible tripodal organic linker (L) and characterized. Tb^III (1) and Eu^III (2) PCPs exhibit metal-based green and red emission, respectively, whereas Yb^III (3), Nd^III (4) and Er^III (5) PCPs show near-infrared (NIR) emission. Doping Eu^III in 1 in a precisely controlled stoichiometric amount leads to different mixed lanthanide PCPs, {[Tb_1-Eu(L)(DMF)(H₂O)]·1.5H₂O} (1a-1f) that show tunable emission including that of bright white light. The PCPs decorated with Lewis basic -O- binding sites make them potential candidates for the binding and selective sensing of traces of Cu^II ions, and this is illustrated for PCP 2 (limit of detection = 0.69 ± 0.02 ppm). The photoluminescence of 2 can be recovered by the introduction of a chelating ligand ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) without any structural disintegration, indicating the potential of the lanthanide PCPs for future sensing applications.