Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.56, No.6, 3190-3200, 2017
Low-Percentage Ln(3+) Doping in a Tetranuclear Lanthanum Polyoxometalate Assembled from [Mo7O24](6-) Polyanions Yielding Visible and Near-Infrared Luminescence
A rare case of low-percentage trivalent lanthanide doping in multinuclear lanthanide polyoxometalates (LnPOMs) was investigated. The [La-4(MoO4) (H2O)(16-) (Mo7O24)(4)](14-) polyanion was chosen as the host material for this study. In this polyanion the central [La-4(MoO4)](10+) core is coordinated by four heptamolybdate groups as well as 16 water molecules. The tetranuclear lanthanum POM was doped with 5% of Eu3+, Tb3+, Sm3+, Dy3+, Nd3+, Er3+, and Yb3+ (according to synthesis), and the structures and luminescence properties of the x%Ln:LaPOMs were investigated. Additionally a series of tetranuclear lanthanide POMs built from [Mo7O24](6-) heptamolybdate polyanions with Eu3+, Tb3+, Sm3+, Dy3+, and Nd3+ instead of La3+ were synthesized, and a detailed analysis revealed that the tetranuclear clusters formed monomers or dimers linked through oxygen bridges. The smaller lanthanide ions, namely, Er3+ and Yb3+, did not form tetranuclear clusters, but instead mononuclear sandwich-type POMs were obtained. The obtained structures were shown to be lanthanide-specific, and not a result of different synthetic/crystallization conditions. The luminescence properties of the x%Ln:LaPOMs were compared with the luminescence properties of the LnPOMs.