Symmetric CEST-active lanthanide complexes for redox monitoring

Two symmetric ligands harbouring two TEMPO radicals and two functionalized acetamide arms (R = OMe (L1), CF₃ (L2)) were prepared and chelated to lanthanide ions (Eu^III, Yb^III for both L1 and L2, Dy^III for L1). Luminescence measurements on the europium complexes support the coordination of a single water molecule. The TEMPO arms are magnetically interacting in L1 (and its complexes) but not in L2. The TEMPO moieties can be reversibly oxidized into an oxoammonium (0.33-0.36 V vs. Fc⁺/Fc) or reduced into a hydroxylamine (ill-defined redox wave, reduction by ascorbate), which are both diamagnetic. The europium complexes [Eu(L1)]3+ and [Eu(L2)]3+ in their hydroxylamine form exhibit a temperature dependent CEST effect, which is maximal at 25 °C (30%) and 37 °C (12%), respectively. The CEST activity is dramatically reduced in the corresponding nitroxide forms due to the paramagnetism of the ligand. The europium complexes show no cytotoxicity against M21 cell lines over long incubation times (72 h) at high concentration (40 μM).

New TEMPO-Appended 2,2'-Bipyridine-Based Eu(III), Tb(III), Gd(III) and Sm(III) Complexes: Synthesis, Photophysical Studies and Testing Photoluminescence-Based Bioimaging Abilities

Linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD), amyloids and tau-protein are known to contain a large number of cysteine (Cys) residues. In addition, certain levels of some common biogenic thiols (cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy), glutathione (GSH), etc.) in biological fluids are closely related to AD as well as other diseases. Therefore, probes with a selective interaction with the above-mentioned thiols can be used for the monitoring and visualizing changes of (bio)thiols in the biological fluids as well as in the brain of animal models of Alzheimer's disease. In this study, new Eu(III), Tb(III), Gd(III) and Sm(III) complexes of 2,2'-bipyridine ligands containing TEMPO fragments as receptor units for (bio)thiols are reported. The presence of free radical fragments of the ligand in the complexes was proved by using the electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR) method. Among all the complexes, the Eu(III) complex turned out to be the most promising one as luminescence- and spin-probe for the detection of biogenic thiols. The EPR and fluorescent titration methods showed the interaction of the resulting complex with free Cys and GSH in solution. To study the practical applicability of the probes for the monitoring of AD in-vivo, by using the above-mentioned Eu(III)-based probe, the staining of the brain of mice with amyloidosis and Vero cell cultures supplemented with the cysteine-enriched medium was studied as well as the fluorescence titration of Bovine Serum Albumin, BSA (as the model for the thiol moieties containing protein), was carried out. Based on the results of fluorescence titration, the formation of a non-covalent inclusion complex between the above-mentioned Eu(III) complex and BSA was suggested.

Lanthanide Complexes (GdIII and EuIII ) Based on a DOTA-TEMPO Platform for Redox Monitoring via Relaxivity

Three lanthanide complexes (Ln=Gd, Eu) based on a DO3 A ([Ln(L1 )]) or DO2 A ([Ln(L2-3 )]+ ) platform appended by a redox active TEMPO-based arm were prepared. Complex [Ln(L2 )]+ shows an alkyne arm, offering the possibility of postfunctionalization by click reaction to yield [Ln(L3 )]+ . The complexes demonstrate a redox response whereby the hydroxylamine, nitroxide and oxoammonium forms of the arm can be obtained in turn. Luminescence measurements on the europium complexes support an octadentate (L1 , L3 ) or heptadentate (L2 ) chelation by the ligand, with one water molecule in the inner coordination sphere. The relaxivity was determined from 20 kHz to 30 MHz by fast-field cycling NMR. The three GdIII complexes under their hydroxylamine form [Gd(L1 )] and [Gd(L2-3 )]+ show r1 values of 7.0, 5.1 and 5.0 mM-1  s-1 (30 KHz), which increase to 8.8, 5.5 and 6.1 mM-1  s-1 in the nitroxide form. The radical complexes are not toxic against M21 cell lines, at least up to 40 μM. By using EPR spectroscopy we establish that they do not penetrate the cells with the exception of [Eu(L2 )]+ .

Lanthanide complexes of DOTA-nitroxide conjugates for redox imaging: spectroelectrochemistry, CEST, relaxivity, and cytotoxicity

The lanthanide(iii) complexes (Gd, Eu, Dy, and Yb) of DOTA tris(amide) and bis(amide) derivatives (L1 and L2) featuring one redox active TEMPO arm were prepared. Ligand L2 harbours an alkyne fragment for further functionalization. The X-ray crystal structure of ligand L2 in complexation with Na+ was solved. The complexes showed in their CV one oxidation wave (0.26-0. 34 V vs. Fc+/Fc) due to an oxoammonium/nitroxide redox couple and a broad reduction corresponding to the nitroxide/hydroxylamine system. The Eu complexes demonstrated the presence of one water molecule in their coordination sphere. The nitroxide complexes were characterized by EPR spectroscopy, showing the typical 3-line pattern in the high temperature regime, which is quenched upon the addition of ascorbate (reduction into hydroxylamine). In their nitroxide form, the complexes show essentially no CEST peak. Conversely, the reduced complexes demonstrate a 12% CEST peak at 51 ppm, corresponding to the metal bound water molecule. Fast exchange precluded the CEST activity for the amide protons. All the complexes proved to be essentially non-toxic for M21 cells at concentrations up to 50 μM.

Lanthanoid Complexes as Molecular Materials: The Redox Approach

The development of molecular materials with novel functionality offers promise for technological innovation. Switchable molecules that incorporate redox-active components are enticing candidate compounds due to their potential for electronic manipulation. Lanthanoid metals are most prevalent in their trivalent state and usually redox-activity in lanthanoid complexes is restricted to the ligand. The unique electronic and physical properties of lanthanoid ions have been exploited for various applications, including in magnetic and luminescent materials as well as in catalysis. Lanthanoid complexes are also promising for applications reliant on switchability, where the physical properties can be modulated by varying the oxidation state of a coordinated ligand. Lanthanoid-based redox activity is also possible, encompassing both divalent and tetravalent metal oxidation states. Thus, utilization of redox-active lanthanoid metals offers an attractive opportunity to further expand the capabilities of molecular materials. This review surveys both ligand and lanthanoid centered redox-activity in pre-existing molecular systems, including tuning of lanthanoid magnetic and photophysical properties by modulating the redox states of coordinated ligands. Ultimately the combination of redox-activity at both ligands and metal centers in the same molecule can afford novel electronic structures and physical properties, including multiconfigurational electronic states and valence tautomerism. Further targeted exploration of these features is clearly warranted, both to enhance understanding of the underlying fundamental chemistry, and for the generation of a potentially important new class of molecular material.

Distorted copper(ii) radicals with sterically hindered salens: electronic structure and aerobic oxidation of alcohols

The sterically hindered salen ligands featuring biphenyl and tetramethyl putrescine linkers were synthesized and chelated to copper. The resulting complexes CuL^bp,tBu, CuL^bp,OMe, CuL^pu,tBu and CuL^pu,OMe were structurally characterized, showing a significanty tetrahedrally distorted metal center. The complexes show two reversible oxidation waves in the range 0.2 to 0.8 V vs. Fc⁺/Fc. A further reduction wave is detected in the range -1.4 to -1.7 V vs. Fc⁺/Fc. It is reversible for CuL^bp,tBu and CuL^bp,OMe and assigned to the Cu^II/Cu^I redox couple. One-electron oxidation of CuL^bp,OMe, CuL^pu,tBu and CuL^pu,OMe was performed chemically and electrochemically. It is accompanied by a quenching of the EPR resonances. Phenoxyl radical formation was established by X-Ray diffraction on the cations [CuL^bp,OMe]⁺ and [CuL^pu,OMe]⁺, whereby the coordination sphere is elongated upon oxidation with quinoidal distributions of bond distances. The cations exhibit a NIR band of moderate intensity in their optical spectrum, supporting their classification as class II mixed-valent radical species according to the Robin Day classification. The proposed electronic structures are supported by DFT calculations. The cations [CuL^bp,OMe]⁺, [CuL^pu,tBu]⁺ and [CuL^pu,OMe]⁺ were active towards aerobic oxidation of the unactivated alcohol 2-phenylethanol, with TON numbers up to 58 within 3 h.

Structural and spectroscopic investigations of nine-coordinate redox active lanthanide complexes with a pincer O,N,O ligand

The lanthanide complexes EuL3, GdL3, YbL3 and LuL3 of the N,N'-bis(2-hydroxy-di-3,5-tert-butylphenyl)amine were prepared. The X-Ray crystal structures of GdL3 and LuL3 demonstrated a nine-coordinate sphere with three ligand molecules under their anionic diamagnetic form (Cat-N-BQ)-. The complexes showed three oxidation events (Eox11/2 = 0.15-0.16 V, E1/22 = 0.51-55 V, and E1/23 = 0.75-0.78 V vs. Fc+/Fc) via cyclic voltammetry, corresponding to the successive oxidation of the aminophenolate moeities to iminosemiquinone species. The complexes GdL3 and YbL3 were characterized by EPR spectroscopy, allowing for the determination of the zero field splitting (ZFS) parameters in the first case. The monocations (LnL3)+ and monoanions (LnL3)- were electrochemically generated (Ln = Eu, Gd, Yb, Lu), as well as the dications YbL32+ and LuL32+. The spins are antiferromagnetically exchange coupled in the diradical species LuL32+ (|D| = 260 MHz, E = 0). All the complexes (incl. neutral) possess a strong absorption band in the NIR region (730-840 nm, ε > 19 mM-1 cm-1) corresponding to ligand-based transitions.

Luminescence Tunable Europium and Samarium Complexes: Reversible On/Off Switching and White-Light Emission

Single-molecule functional materials with luminescence tunable by external stimuli are of increasing interest due to their application in sensors, display devices, biomarkers, and switches. Herein, new europium and samarium complexes with ligands having triphenylamine (TPA) groups as the redox center and 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) as the coordinating groups and diketonate (tta) as the second ligand have been constructed. The complexes show white-light emission in selected solvents for proper mixtures of the emission from Ln³⁺ ions and the ligands. Meanwhile, they exhibit reversible luminescence switching on/off properties by controlling the external potential owing to intramolecular energy transfer from the Ln³⁺ ions to the electrochemically generated radical cation of TPA^•+. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations have been performed to study the electronic spectra. The proposed intramolecular energy transfer processes have been verified by density functional theory (DFT) studies.

Dysprosium Single-Molecule Magnets Involving 1,10-Phenantroline-5,6-dione Ligand

The two mononuclear complexes of the formula [Dy(tta)3(L)] (1) and [Dy(hfac)3(L)] (2) (where tta- = 2-thenoytrifluoroacetylacetonate and hfac- = 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoroacetylacetonate) were obtained from the coordination reaction of the Dy(tta)3·2H2O or Dy(hfac)3·2H2O units with the 1,10-phenantroline-5,6-dione ligand (L). Their structures have been determined by X-ray diffraction studies on single crystals, and they revealed a supramolecular assembly of tetramers through σ-π interactions. Both complexes displayed a Single-Molecule Magnet (SMM) behavior without an external applied magnetic field. Magnetic relaxation happened through Orbach, Raman and Quantum Tunneling of the Magnetization (QTM). Wavefunction theory calculations were realized to rationalize the magnetic properties.

Redox-Modulations of Photophysical and Single-molecule Magnet Properties in Ytterbium Complexes Involving Extended-TTF Triads

The reaction between the 2,2’-benzene-1,4-diylbis(6-hydroxy-4,7-di-tert-butyl-1,3-benzodithiol-2-ylium-5-olate triad (H₂SQ) and the metallo-precursor [Yb(hfac)₃]⋅2H₂O led to the formation of a dinuclear coordination complex of formula [Yb₂(hfac)₆(H₂SQ)]⋅0.5CH₂Cl₂ (H₂SQ-Yb). After chemical oxidation of H₂SQ in 2,2’-cyclohexa-2,5-diene-1,4-diylidenebis(4,7-di-tert-butyl-1,3-benzodithiole-5,6-dione (Q), the latter triad reacted with the [Yb(hfac)₃]⋅2H₂O precursor to give the dinuclear complex of formula [Yb₂(hfac)₆(Q)] (Q-Yb). Both dinuclear compounds have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, DFT optimized structure and electronic absorption spectra. They behaved as field-induced Single-Molecule Magnets (SMMs) nevertheless the chemical oxidation of the semiquinone to quinone moieties accelerated by a factor of five the relaxation time of the magnetization of Q-Yb compared to the one for H₂SQ-Yb. The H₂SQ triad efficiently sensitized the Yb^III luminescence while the chemical oxidation of H₂SQ into Q induced strong modification of the absorption properties and thus a quenching of the Yb^III luminescence for Q-Yb. In other words, both magnetic modulation and luminescence quenching are reached by the oxidation of the protonated semiquinone into quinone.

Luminescent pro-nitroxide lanthanide complexes for the detection of reactive oxygen species

A DOTA-based ligand appended with a pro-nitroxide moiety has been chelated to trivalent Eu and Yb, giving luminescent complexes. Under Fenton conditions both are converted into iminonitroxide and subsequently nitronyl nitroxide complexes.

Solid-state luminescence properties, Hirshfeld surface analysis and DFT calculations of mononuclear lanthanide complexes (Ln = EuIII, GdIII, TbIII, DyIII) containing 4'-phenyl-2,2':6',2″-terpyridine

Four mononuclear lanthanide complexes containing 4'-phenyl-2,2':6',2″-terpyridine (ptpy), [Ln(NO₃)₃(ptpy) (H₂O)] (Ln = Eu (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4)), were solvothermally synthesized and characterized via elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and powder X-ray diffraction. Hirshfeld surfaces and the solid-state luminescence properties of the complexes were investigated. The 3-D Hirshfeld surface and 2-D fingerprint plots show that the main interactions are the O H/H O intermolecular interactions in 1-4. Solid-state luminescence investigation reveals that Gd^III complex 2 displays a ligand-centered emission and the Eu^III, Tb^III and Dy^III complexes 1, 3 and 4 show the characteristic lanthanide-centered luminescence upon UV excitations. The Eu^III and Tb^III complexes exhibit red (CIE: 0.6549, 0.3447) and green (CIE: 0.3760, 0.5412) luminescence in the solid state with quantum yields of 16.8% and 0.8% and lifetimes of 0.545 and 0.043 ms, respectively. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were conducted to unravel the HOMO-LUMO energy gaps of the structures of ptpy and complexes 1 and 3.

Crystal structures of binuclear complexes of gadolinium(III) and dysprosium(III) with oxalate bridges and chelating N,N'-bis-(2-oxido-benz-yl)-N,N'-bis-(pyridin-2-ylmeth-yl)ethyl-enedi-amine (bbpen2-)

The reaction between mononuclear [Ln(bbpen)Cl] [Ln = Gd or Dy; H2bbpen = N,N'-bis-(2-hy-droxy-benz-yl)-N,N'-bis-(pyridin-2-ylmeth-yl)ethyl-enedi-amine, C28H30N4O2] and potassium oxalate monohydrate in water/methanol produced the solvated centrosymmetric isostructural binuclear (μ-oxalato)bis-{[N,N'-bis-(2-oxidobenzyl-κO)-N,N'-bis-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl-κN)ethyl-enedi-amine-κ2 N,N']dilanthanide(III)}-methanol-water (1/4/4) complexes, [Ln 2(C28H28N4O2)2(C2O4)]·4CH3OH·4H2O, with lanthanide(III) = gadolinium(III) (Ln = Gd) and dysprosium(III) (Ln = Dy), in high yields (ca 70%) directly from the reaction mixtures. In both complexes, the lanthanide ion is eight-coordinate and adopts a distorted square-anti-prismatic coordination environment. The triclinic (P ) unit cell contains one dimeric unit together with four water and four methanol mol-ecules; in the final structural model, two of each type of solvating mol-ecule refine well. In each lanthanide(III) dimeric mol-ecule, the medium-strength O⋯H-O hydrogen-bonding pattern involves four oxygen atoms, two of them from the phenolate groups that are 'bridged' by one water and one methanol mol-ecule. These inter-actions seem to contribute to the stabilization of the relatively compact shape of the dimer. Electron densities associated with an additional water and methanol mol-ecule were removed with the SQUEEZE procedure in PLATON [Spek (2015 ▸). Acta Cryst. C71, 9-18]. These two new compounds are of inter-est with respect to magnetic properties.

Seven-coordinate lanthanide complexes with a tripodal redox active ligand: structural, electrochemical and spectroscopic investigations

One-electron oxidation of the lanthanide complexes affords phenoxyl radical species. Radical formation is accompanied by a quenching of the metal-based luminescence.