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Self‐Aggregated Dinuclear Lanthanide(III) Complexes as Potential Bimodal Probes for Magnetic Resonance and Optical Imaging
Author(s) -
RegueiroFigueroa Martín,
at Aline,
Rolla Gabriele A.,
EstebanGómez David,
de Blas Andrés,
RodríguezBlas Teresa,
Charbonnière Loïc J.,
Botta Mauro,
PlatasIglesias Carlos
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201301231
Subject(s) - lanthanide , hydroxymethyl , luminescence , ligand (biochemistry) , tris , chemistry , dynamic light scattering , crystallography , metal , metal ions in aqueous solution , chelation , molecule , ion , materials science , nanoparticle , inorganic chemistry , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , biochemistry , receptor , optoelectronics
Homodinuclear lanthanide complexes (Ln=La, Eu, Gd, Tb, Yb and Lu) derived from a bis‐macrocyclic ligand featuring two 2,2′,2′′‐(1,4,7,10‐tetraazacyclododecane‐1,4,7‐triyl)triacetic acid chelating sites linked by a 2,6‐bis(pyrazol‐1‐yl)pyridine spacer (H 2 L 3 ) were prepared and characterized. Luminescence lifetime measurements recorded on solutions of the Eu III and Tb III complexes indicate the presence of one inner‐sphere water molecule coordinated to each metal ion in these complexes. The overall luminescence quantum yields were determined ( ϕ H 2 O =0.01 for [Eu 2 (L 3 )] and 0.50 for [Tb 2 (L 3 )] in 0.01 M TRIS/HCl, pH 7.4; TRIS=tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane), pointing to an effective sensitization of the metal ion by the bispyrazolylpyridyl unit of the ligand, especially with Tb. The nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD) profiles recorded for [Gd 2 (L 3 )] are characteristic of slowly tumbling systems, showing a low‐field plateau and a broad maximum around 30 MHz. This suggests the occurrence of aggregation of the complexes giving rise to slowly rotating species. A similar behavior is observed for the analogous Gd III complex containing a 4,4′‐dimethyl‐2,2′‐bipyridyl spacer ([Gd 2 (L 1 )]). The relaxivity of [Gd 2 (L 3 )] recorded at 0.5 T and 298 K (pH 6.9) amounts to 13.7 m M −1 s −1 . The formation of aggregates has been confirmed by dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments, which provided mean particle sizes of 114 and 38 nm for [Gd 2 (L 1 )] and [Gd 2 (L 3 )], respectively. TEM images of [Gd 2 (L 3 )] indicate the formation of nearly spherical nanosized aggregates with a mean diameter of about 41 nm, together with some nonspherical particles with larger size.