A novel extended covalent tripod for assembling triple-helical nine-co-ordinated lanthanide(III) podates: the rational design of a single conformer†

The connection of a methyl group to the apical carbon atom of a semi-rigid extended tripod provides the novel podand 1,1,1-tris-{2-[2-(6-diethylcarbamoyl-pyridin-2-yl)-1-ethyl-1H-benzoimidazol-5-ylmethoxy]-ethyl}-ethane (L13). Reaction with lanthanide() in acetonitrile produces stable and dynamically inert C3-symmetrical podates [Ln(L13)] (Ln = La–Lu) in which Ln is nine-co-ordinate in a pseudo-tricapped trigonal prismatic site. Electroninduced nuclear relaxation in the paramagnetic complex [Nd(L13)] shows that the capping carbon atom adopts the exo conformation with the methyl group pointing outside the cavity of the podand. The crystal structure of [Eu(L13)](ClO4)3 confirms the exclusive formation of the exo conformer, which contrasts with the mixture of two endo conformers reported for the non-methylated analogue. Structural analysis combined with photophysical data in [Ln(L13)](ClO4)3 (Ln = La, Eu, Gd, Tb) point to negligible mechanical coupling mediated by the flexible four-atoms aliphatic chains between the apical carbon atom and the unsymmetrical tridentate binding units. However, the exo conformation of the tripod in [Eu(L13)] removes some interactions between the high-frequency CH oscillators and the metal-centred excited electronic levels, thus leading to larger lifetime and improved quantum yield in solution.