The use of phosphine oxides as ligands for lanthanide-derived compounds has been demonstrated, in this project, to be a very useful strategy to take profit of two physical properties closely related to lanthanide cations: luminescence and slow magnetic relaxation.
Our approach proposes the fine tuning of the phosphine oxide ligands to, in one hand, enhance luminescence by using appropriate antennas in the PO moiety and, on the other hand, by placing these ligands in an appropriate geometry around the cation to control the crystal field, which will help in the achievement of Single Ion Magnet (SIM) behaviour.
The next goal in this project will be to continue tuning the ligands to add more properties to these molecules, paying special attention to the introduction of chirality to synthesize circularly polarized luminescent systems.
This work has been developed in frame of the IN²UB_ART award call 2021, in a collaboration between Magnetic Interactions and Molecular Magnetism and Homogeneous Catalysis
Pilichos, E.; Tubau, A.; Speed, S.; Font-Bardia, M.; Escuer, A.; Grabulosa, A.*; Mayans, J.* Magnetic and Optical Study in a New Family of Multidimensional and Multiproperty PO-Lanthanide(III) Derived Systems. Dalton Trans. 2023, 52, 2485-2494.