Crystal structure and photoluminescent properties of a new Eu-phthalate-acetate coordination polymer.

A new coordination polymer, poly[(acetato)aqua(μ-phthalato)europium(III)], [Eu(CHO)(CHO)(HO)] or [Eu(phth)(OAc)(HO)] (phth = phthalate and OAc = acetate) was synthesized and characterized, revealing it to be a supra-molecular assembly of one-dimensional [Eu(phth)(OAc)(HO)] chains. Each chain is built up of edge-sharing distorted tricapped trigonal-prismatic -{EuO} building motifs and assembled in a regular fashion through hydrogen-bonding and aromatic π-π inter-actions. The fully deprotonated phth ligand was shown to be an effective sensitizer, promoting the characteristic → ( = 1-4) emissions of Eu even in the presence of the non-sensitizing OAc group.