A series of lanthanide germanate cluster organic frameworks.

Six new lanthanide (Ln) germanate cluster organic frameworks (LnGeCOFs) derived from {Ln8Ge12} cage cluster units {[Nd(pza)2(H2O)] [Nd8Ge12(μ3-O)24E12(pza)(H2O)12]}·3H2O (1), {[Dy(CH3COO)(CO3)(H2O)]2[Dy8Ge12(μ3-O)24E12(H2O)12]}·11H2O (2), {[TbGeE(HO)2O(pza) (H2O)]2[Tb8Ge12(μ3-O)24E12(H2O)6]}·18H2O (3), {[DyGeE(HO)2O(C3H5NO2)(H2O)]2[Dy8Ge12(μ3-O)24E12(H2O)8]}·8H2O (4), {[Tb(pca)2 (H2O)]3[Tb8Ge12(μ3-O)24E12(H2O)4]}·(OH)3·10H2O (5) and {[Dy(pza)2(H2O)][Dy(pza)2(H2O)2][Dy(pza)3(H2O)][Dy8Ge12(μ3-O)24E12(pza)(HCOO) (H2O)6]}·5H2O (6) have been hydrothermally synthesized and structurally characterized. Increasing the amount of the second ligands can induce not only the assembly from 1 to 5, 6 based on Ln oxides as the starting sources, but also the assembly from 2 to 3, 4 based on Ln salts as the starting sources. The successful preparation of these LnGeCOFs suggests the importance of the second ligands in the structural construction of 1-6. To our knowledge, 1 is the first example that includes right- and left-handed helical chains among LnGeCOFs based on bis(carboxyethylgermanium)sesquioxide. 2, 4 and 6 are the first dysprosium incorporated organogermanates based on bis(carboxyethylgermanium)sesquioxide. 4 and 5 display very open framework structures with a solvent-accessible volume of 34.6% for 4 and 35.0% for 5. Moreover, the solid-state photoluminescence properties of 1, 3 and 5 have been investigated at room temperature and they exhibit the characteristic emission bands derived from Ln cations.