Study of lanthanide complexes with salicylic acid by photoacoustic and fluorescence spectroscopy.

Abstract Solid complexes Ln(Sal) 3 ·H 2 O (Sal: salicylic acid; Ln: La 3+ , Nd 3+ , Eu 3+ , Tb 3+ ) are synthesized, and their photoacoustic (PA) spectra in the UV-Vis region have been recorded. PA intensities of central lanthanide ions are interpreted in terms of the probability of nonradiative transitions. It is found that PA intensity of the ligand increases in the order of Tb(Sal) 3 ·H 2 O 3 ·H 2 O 3 ·H 2 O 3 ·H 2 O. Different PA intensities of the ligand are interpreted by comparison with the fluorescence spectra. Ternary complexes Eu(Sal) 3 Phen and Tb(Sal) 3 Phen (Phen: 1,10-phenanthroline) are synthesized. Compared with their binary complexes, PA intensity of the ligand Sal decreases for Eu(Sal) 3 Phen, while the reverse is true for that of Tb(Sal) 3 Phen. The luminescence of Eu 3+ increases remarkably when Phen is introduced, and luminescence of Tb 3+ decreases greatly when Phen is added. The intramolecular energy transfer and relaxation processes in the complexes are discussed from two aspects: radiative and nonradiative relaxations.