Crystallography and photoluminescence properties of β-diketonate monoporphyrinate ytterbium(III) complexes

The structures of two β-diketonate monoporphyrinate ytterbium(III) complexes were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis revealing, for the first time, seven-coordinate Yb(III) metal centers. The results reveal that there is only one solvent molecule (water or methanol) coordinating to ytterbium(III) in the complexes. Their photoluminescence of complexes in solution also shows that water and methanol that bind to ytterbium(III) ion quench the near-infrared emission of lanthanide, resulting a shorter lifetime (∼2.4 μs).