Photoelectron spectroscopy of several lanthanide β-diketonates

Abstract The valence region electronic structure of Ln(acac) 3 complexes (Ln = Nd, Tm, Pr; acac = acetylacetonate) is investigated using, principally, gas-phase ultraviolet photoelectron (PE) spectroscopy. Analysis of PE spectra focuses on the 7–12 eV region containing the first several ionization bands which likely contain metal f-ionizations and acac-based ionizations. These correspond to oxygen 2p-type orbitals and carbon 2p-type orbitals, which are equivalent to oxygen lone pairs and electrons from the pi-bond system of the ligand.