Unusually Large Ligand Field Splitting in Anionic Europium(III) Complexes Induced by a Small Imidazolic Counterion

Luminescent trivalent lanthanide (Ln3+) complexes are compounds of technological interest due to their unique photophysical properties, particularly anionic tetrakis complexes, given their higher stability and emission quantum yields. However, structural studies on the cation–anion interaction in these complexes and the relation of such to luminescence are still lacking. Herein, the cation–anion interactions in two luminescent anionic tetrakis(2-thenoyltrifluoroacetonato)europate(III) complexes with alkylimidazolium cations, specifically 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium are investigated. The Eu3+ complexes were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, and single-crystal X-ray crystallography, and their luminescence spectra were recorded at 77 K. Quantum chemical calculations were also performed. X-ray crystallography revealed hydrogen bonds between the enolate ligands and imidazolium ring hydrogens. The 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium complex had two crystallographic Eu3+ sites, also confirmed by luminescence spectroscopy. The 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium complex exhibited an unusual 300 cm–1 splitting in the 5D0 → 7F1 transition, as reproduced by ligand field calculations, suggesting a stronger hydrogen bonding due to the smaller substituent. We hypothesize that this strong bonding likely causes angular distortions, resulting in high ligand field splittings.