Synthesis, structure and luminescence property of the ternary and quaternary europium complexes with furoic acid

A ternany europium complex with furoic acid (α-FURA) and 1,10-phenanthroline(phen), [Eu(α-FURA)₃phen]H₂O(I) and a quaternary europium furoate complex with 1,10-phenanthroline and nitrate, Eu(α-FURA)₂NO₃phen(II) were synthesized and characterized by X-ray diffraction. The two europium ions in each of the complexes (I) and (II) are held together by four carboxylato groups with the two modes, namely bidentate bridging and tridentate bridging, and each europium ion is further bonded to two nitrogen atoms from 1,10-phenanthroline and one chelated bidentate furoate group for the complex (I) and one chelated nitrato group for the complex (II), making a coordination number of 9. Luminescence spectra observed at 77 K show that the europium ion site in the crystals of the complexes (I) and (II) has low symmetry and lifetimes of the solid complexes (I) and (II) are 1.13 and 1.20 ms, respectively.