Effects of counterions of colorful sandwich-type zinc(II) 4′-phenyl-terpyridine compounds on photoluminescent and thermal properties

Abstract Reactions between 4′-phenyl-terpyridine (L) and several Zn(II) salts ( p -toluenesulfonate, nitrate, trifluoromethane sulfonate or hexafluoroantimonate) led to the formation of the complexes [ZnL 2 ]( p -OSO 2 PhCH 3 ) 2 ( 1 ), [ZnL 2 ](NO 3 ) 2 ( 2 ), [ZnL 2 ](SO 3 CF 3 ) 2 ( 3 ) and [ZnL 2 ](SbF 6 ) 2 ( 4 ), which were characterized by IR, 1 H NMR, elemental analysis, UV–vis spectroscopies and single crystal X-ray diffraction, along with their TG-DTA thermal and photoluminescent properties. The four compounds show mononuclear Zn(II) structures with hexacoordinated, irregular ZnN 6 octahedron geometries. Their colours and photo-luminescent properties have changed regularly depending on the counterions of the compounds.