Lanthanides and actinides: annual survey of their organometallic chemistry covering the year 1995

Noncovalent Interactions at Lanthanide Complexes

Lanthanide complexes have attracted a widespread attention due to their structural diversity, as well as multifunctional and tunable properties. The development of lanthanide based functional materials has often relied on the design of the secondary coordination sphere of the corresponding lanthanide complexes. For instance, usually simple lanthanide salts (solvento complexes) do not catalyze effectively organic reactions or provide low yield of the expected product, whereas the presence of a suitable organic ligand with a noncovalent bond donor or acceptor centre (secondary coordination sphere) modifies the symmetry around the metal centre in lanthanide complexes which then successfully can act as catalysts in both homogenous and heterogenous catalysis. In this minireview, we discuss several relevant examples, based on X-ray crystal structure analyses, in which the hydrogen, halogen, chalcogen, pnictogen, tetrel and rare-earth bonds, as well as cation-π, anion-π, lone pair-π, π-π and pancake interactions, are used as a synthon in the decoration of the secondary coordination sphere of lanthanide complexes.

Lanthanide-saccharide chemistry: synthesis and characterisation of Ce(III)-saccharide complexes

A series of nine Ce(III) complexes has been synthesised with seven different monosaccharides (D-glucose, D-fructose, D-galactose, D-mannose, L-sorbose, D-ribose and D-xylose) and two different disaccharides (D-maltose and L-lactose), and these have been characterised with various analytical, spectral, magnetic and electrochemical techniques. The NMR studies have highlighted some interesting features about the metal-ion-binding pattern of the saccharides. Some additional coordination has been proposed along with the chelating groups in the saccharide molecules, based on the shifts in 13C NMR spectra. On the other hand, solution absorption studies and solid-state magnetic susceptibilities have indicated the contribution from the d-character to the spectral features to some extent.