The first complexes with lanthanoid ions and the nitroanilato ligand have been synthesized (nitroanilate dianion = [C6O4(NO2)2]2− = dianion of the 3,6-dinitro-2,5-dihydroxo-1,4-dibenzoquinone ligand). This family of dimers can be formulated as [Ln2(C6O4(NO2)2)3(H2O)10]·6H2O with Ln(III) = Sm (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4), Ho (5), and Er (6). The X-ray structure of this family of isostructural complexes shows that they all present a dimeric structure where the Ln3+ ions are connected by a bis-bidentate nitroanilato ligand. Each metal completes its nonacoordination environment with a terminal bidentate nitroanilato ligand and five water molecules in a slightly distorted tri-capped trigonal prismatic geometry. The magnetic properties of this family show the expected contributions of the lanthanoid ions without any noticeable magnetic interaction through the nitroanilato ligand. The compounds present luminesce of the nitroanilato ligand superimposed with a weaker emission from the lanthanide ion in compound 5 (Ho)
