Facile solvothermal syntheses of isostructural lanthanide(III) formates: Photocatalytic, photoluminescent chemosensing properties, and proficient precursors for metal oxide nanoparticles

Abstract

Three isostructural lanthanide coordination polymers (CPs) with the formula C₃H₃LnO₆ [Ln = Pr (1), Ce (2), and Dy (3)] were solvothermally synthesized by self-assembly of lanthanide(III) and in-situ generated methanoic acid by the hydrolysis of N,N-dimethyl formamide. These CPs were characterized by FTIR, elemental analysis, PXRD, and single crystal analysis. The metal centered luminescence properties of these coordination polymers revealed that only the dysprosium based CP exhibited significant luminescence, and it was found to be selective for chemosensing of picric acid. 3 showed quenching efficiency of 89.7% with K_SV value of 2.89 × 10⁴ M⁻¹. These coordination polymers were also exploited as photocatalysts for degradation of methylene blue, and the dysprosium based CP proved to be a fantastic photocatalyst with the degradation activity of 92% owing to its effective electronic transitions. The solvent-free thermolysis of these LnCPs fabricated CeO₂ and Pr₆O₁₁ nanoparticles characterized by PXRD, FTIR, particle size analyzer, and elemental analysis.

Keywords:

• Lanthanide formats
• luminescence
• chemosensing
• photocatalyst
• nanoparticles

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, HEC project no. 01-ISULL/09/GCUL/ACAD/HEC/2017/166 and Office of Research Innovation & Commercialization GC University, Lahore, ORIC project no. 108/ORIC/19.