Coordination Environment-Controlled Photoinduced Electron Transfer Quenching in Luminescent Europium Complexes

H NMR spectroscopy, the results of which support the structural similarity of the complexes. The redox and photophysical behavior of the Eu(III) center and the light-harvesting antenna were studied using cyclic voltammetry and steady-state and time-resolved emission spectroscopy on the nanosecond and millisecond time scales. The contribution of photoinduced electron transfer to the overall reduction of the Eu(III) luminescence quantum yield was found to be comparable and, in many cases, larger than the quenching caused by well-established processes such as coupling to X-H oscillators. These results suggest that the elimination or mitigation of photoinduced electron transfer could substantially improve the emissive properties of the widely used Eu(III)-based emitters.