Effect of Proton Substitution by Alkali Ions on the Fluorescence Emission of Rhodamine B Cations in the Gas Phase

The photophysics of chromophores is strongly influenced by their environment. Solvation, charge state, and adduct formation significantly affect ground and excited state energetics and dynamics. The present study reports on fluorescence emission of rhodamine B cations (RhBH⁺) and derivatives in the gas phase. Substitution of the acidic proton of RhBH⁺ by alkali metal cations, M⁺, ranging from lithium to cesium leads to significant and systematic blue shifts of the emission. The gas-phase structures and singlet transition energies of RhBH⁺ and RhBM⁺, M = Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs, were investigated using Hartree–Fock theory, density functional methods, second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory, and the second-order approximate coupled-cluster model CC2. Comparison of experimental and theoretical results highlights the need for improved quantum chemical methods, while the hypsochromic shift observed upon substitution appears best explained by the Stark effect due to the inhomogeneous electric field generated by the alkali ions

Gas-Phase Photoluminescence Characterization of Stoichiometrically Pure Nonanuclear Lanthanoid Hydroxo Complexes Comprising Europium or Gadolinium

Gas-phase photoluminescence measurements involving mass-spectrometric techniques enable determination of the properties of selected molecular systems with knowledge of their exact composition and unaffected by matrix effects such as solvent interactions or crystal packing. The resulting reduced complexity facilitates a comparison with theory. Herein, we provide a detailed report of the intrinsic luminescence properties of nonanuclear europium­(III) and gadolinium­(III) 9-hydroxy­phenalen-1-one (HPLN) hydroxo complexes. Luminescence spectra of [Eu₉(PLN)₁₆(OH)₁₀]⁺ ions reveal an europium-centered emission dominated by a 4-fold split Eu^III hypersensitive transition, while photoluminescence lifetime measurements for both complexes support an efficient europium sensitization via a PLN-centered triplet-state manifold. The combination of gas-phase measurements with density functional theory computations and ligand-field theory is used to discuss the antiprismatic core structure of the complexes and to shed light on the energy-transfer mechanism. This methodology is also employed to fit a new set of parameters, which improves the accuracy of ligand-field computations of Eu^III electronic transitions for gas-phase species

Vibronic Coupling Analysis of the Ligand-Centered Phosphorescence of Gas-Phase Gd(III) and Lu(III) 9‑Oxophenalen-1-one Complexes

The gas-phase laser-induced photoluminescence of cationic mononuclear gadolinium and lutetium complexes involving two 9-oxophenalen-1-one ligands is reported. Performing measurements at a temperature of 83 K enables us to resolve vibronic transitions. Via comparison to Franck–Condon computations, the main vibrational contributions to the ligand-centered phosphorescence are determined to involve rocking, wagging, and stretching of the 9-oxophenalen-1-one–lanthanoid coordination in the low-energy range, intraligand bending, and stretching in the medium- to high-energy range, rocking of the carbonyl and methine groups, and C–H stretching beyond. Whereas Franck–Condon calculations based on density-functional harmonic frequency computations reproduce the main features of the vibrationally resolved emission spectra, the absolute transition energies as determined by density functional theory are off by several thousand wavenumbers. This discrepancy is found to remain at higher computational levels. The relative energy of the Gd­(III) and Lu­(III) emission bands is only reproduced at the coupled-cluster singles and doubles level and beyond

Characterization of Nonanuclear Europium and Gadolinium Complexes by Gas-Phase Luminescence Spectroscopy

Gas-phase measurements using mass-spectrometric techniques allow determination of the luminescence properties of selected molecular systems with knowledge of their exact composition. Furthermore, isolated luminophores are unaffected by matrix effects like solvent interactions or crystal packing. As a result, the system complexity is reduced relative to the condensed phase and a direct comparison with theory is facilitated. Herein, we report the intrinsic luminescence properties of nonanuclear europium­(III) and gadolinium­(III) 9-hydroxyphenalen-1-one (HPLN)–hydroxo complexes. Luminescence spectra of [Eu₉(PLN)₁₆(OH)₁₀]⁺ ions reveal an europium-centered emission dominated by a 4-fold split Eu­(III) hypersensitive transition. The corresponding Gd­(III) complex, [Gd₉(PLN)₁₆(OH)₁₀]⁺, shows a broad emission from a ligand based triplet state with an onset of about 1000 wavenumbers in excess of the europium emission. As supported by photoluminescence lifetime measurements for both complexes, we deduce an efficient europium sensitization via PLN-based triplet states. The luminescence spectra of the complexes are discussed in terms of a square antiprismatic europium/gadolinium core structure as suggested by density functional computations

Substitutional Photoluminescence Modulation in Adducts of a Europium Chelate with a Range of Alkali Metal Cations: A Gas-Phase Study

We present gas-phase dispersed photoluminescence spectra of europium­(III) 9-hydroxyphenalen-1-one (HPLN) complexes forming adducts with alkali metal ions ([Eu­(PLN)₃M]⁺ with M = Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs) confined in a quadrupole ion trap for study. The mass selected alkali metal cation adducts display a split hypersensitive ⁵D₀ → ⁷F₂ Eu³⁺ emission band. One of the two emission components shows a linear dependence on the radius of the alkali metal cation whereas the other component displays a quadratic dependence thereon. In addition, the relative intensities of both components invert in the same order. The experimental results are interpreted with the support of density functional calculations and Judd–Ofelt theory, yielding also structural information on the isolated [Eu­(PLN)₃M]⁺ chromophores

Photoluminescence Spectroscopy of Mass-Selected Electrosprayed Ions Embedded in Cryogenic Rare-Gas Matrixes

An apparatus is presented which combines nanoelectrospray ionization for isolation of large molecular ions from solution, mass-to-charge ratio selection in gas-phase, low-energy-ion-beam deposition into a (co-condensed) inert gas matrix and UV laser-induced visible-region photoluminescence (PL) of the matrix isolated ions. Performance is tested by depositing three different types of lanthanoid diketonate cations including also a dissociation product species not directly accessible by chemical synthesis. For these strongly photoluminescent ions, accumulation of some femto- to picomoles in a neon matrix (over a time scale of tens of minutes to several hours) is sufficient to obtain well-resolved dispersed emission spectra. We have ruled out contributions to these spectra due to charge neutralization or fragmentation during deposition by also acquiring photoluminescence spectra of the same ionic species in the gas phase