A gadolinium(III) complex: synthesis, structure, photophysical profile and its role in the degradation of nitroaromatics

Abstract

The synthesis and structural characterization of a gadolinium(III) complex with phenanthroline and thiocyanate ligands have been accomplished. The X-ray crystal structure reveals that Gd(III) in a slightly distorted square anti-prism coordinated with four thiocyanate ions and two phenanthroline molecules; one phenanthroline is protonated which compensates the charge of Gd(III) center. The crystal structure shows chemically significant non-covalent interactions like hydrogen bonding involving the thiocyanate ligand and π–π interactions between uncoordinated phenanthrolinium and coordinated phen. Investigation on the intermolecular interactions and crystal packing via Hirshfeld surface analysis reveals that close contacts are mainly associated with weak interactions. The fingerprint plots demonstrate that these weak interactions are important for crystal packing. The Gd(III) complex shows photophysical activity. The compound is capable of degrading toxic pollutants like nitroaromatics and may have far reaching consequences for cleaning these toxic pollutants from industrial effluents.

Keywords:

• Gadolinium(III) complex
• X-ray crystallography
• photophysical activity
• nitroaromatic degradation

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the UGC-DAE-CSR-KC for funding in the form of a Major Research Project to KKM [UGC-DAE-CSR-KC/CRS/13/RC05/0888] where SB is a project fellow. MG and SSP are thankful to Jadavpur University and UGC, respectively, for Research Fellowships. The single crystal X-ray diffractometer used in this work has been funded by Department of Science and Technology (DST-FIST), New Delhi, India, to the Department of Chemistry, J.U.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.