Three-dimensional homochiral coordination polymers of Eu(III) and Tb(III): Synthesis, structure determination, and optical properties

Abstract Self-assembly of the corresponding europium and terbium salts with designed chiral ligand (S)-5-((2-carboxy-5-oxopyrrolidin-1-yl)methyl)isophthalic acid (H3L) generated two novel 3D coordination polymers {[Eu(L)]·0.5CH3CN}n (1) and {[Tb(L)]·0.5CH3CN}n (2). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses reveal that 1 and 2 are isostructural metal-organic frameworks built from four-stranded helixes. Complexes 1 and 2 are intriguing homochiral porous architectures with 6,6-connected (48∙66∙8)(413∙62) topology, whose homochirality was further confirmed by their solid-state circular dichroism spectra. Thermal analyses disclose that the desolvated frameworks of 1 and 2 can maintain their structural stability below 370 °C. Solid-state photoluminescence studies show that 1 and 2 exhibit strong characteristic Eu(III) and Tb(III) emissions with long lifetimes of 1.31 and 1.35 ms, respectively. In addition, 1 and 2 also exhibit significant second harmonic generation activities with their intensities of about 0.29 and 0.31 times larger than that of potassium dihydrogenphosphate, respectively. Very importantly, the excellent thermostabilities and strong red and green emissions of 1 and 2 are of great significance for further exploration of their applications in optical devices.