Lanthanide Hexacyanidoruthenate Frameworks for Multicolor to White-Light Emission Realized by the Combination of d-d, d-f, and f-f Electronic Transitions

We report an effective strategy toward tunable room-temperature multicolor to white-light emission realized by mixing three different lanthanide ions (Sm3+, Tb3+, and Ce3+) in three-dimensional (3D) coordination frameworks based on hexacyanidoruthenate(II) metalloligands. Mono-lanthanide com-pounds, K{LnIII(H2O)n[RuII(CN)6]}center dot mH2O (1, Ln = La, n = 3, m = 1.2; 2, Ln = Ce, n = 3, m = 1.3; 3, Ln = Sm, n = 2, m = 2.4; 4, Ln = Tb, n = 2, m = 2.4) are 3D cyanido-bridged networks based on the Ln-NC-Ru linkages, with cavities occupied by K+ ions and water molecules. They crystallize differently for larger (1, 2) and smaller (3, 4) lanthanides, in the hexagonal P63/m or the orthorhombic Cmcm space groups, respectively. All exhibit luminescence under the UV excitation, including weak blue emission in 1 due to the d-d 3T1g -> 1A1g electronic transition of RuII, as well as much stronger blue emission in 2 related to the d-f 2D3/2 -> 2F5/2,7/2 transitions of CeIII, red emission in 3 due to the f-f 4G5/2 -> 6H5/2,7/2,9/2,11/2 transitions of SmIII, and green emission in 4 related to the f-f 5D4 -> 7F6,5,4,3 transitions of TbIII. The lanthanide emissions, especially those of SmIII, take advantage of the RuII-to-LnIII energy transfer. The CeIII and TbIII emissions are also supported by the excitation of the d-f electronic states. Exploring emission features of the LnIII-RuII networks, two series of heterobi-lanthanide systems, K{SmxCe1-x(H2O)n[Ru(CN)6]}center dot mH2O (x = 0.47, 0.88, 0.88, 0.99, 0.998; 5-9) and K-{TbxCe1-x(H2O)n[Ru(CN)6]}center dot mH2O (x = 0.56, 0.65, 0.93, 0.99, 0.997; 10-14) were prepared. They exhibit the composition-and excitation-dependent tuning of emission from blue to red and blue to green, respectively. Finally, the heterotri-lanthanide system of the K{Sm0.4Tb0.599Ce0.001(H2O)2[Ru(CN)6]}center dot 2.5H2O (15) composition shows the rich emission spectrum consisting of the peaks related to CeIII, TbIII, and SmIII centers, which gives the emission color tuning from blue to orange and white-light emission of the CIE 1931 xy parameters of 0.325, 0.333.