Lanthanide complexes of new ditopic, tripodal macrocycles: synthetic, structural, stability and luminescence studies

Mannich reactions of salicylaldehyde with 1,4,7-triazacyclononane afford new ditopic, tripodal macrocycles that contain adjacent proton-binding and lanthanide-binding compartments; structural and stability studies illustrate the O6-pendant compartments as metal-binding and the N3-capping macrocyclic compartment as proton-binding while pH-modulated stabilities span the range Log 17–35. Luminescence of the Eu(III) and Tb(III) complexes is weak, as expected for complexes that include coordinated water.