Combined performance of circularly polarized luminescence and proton conduction in homochiral cadmium(II)-terbium(III) complexes

Multifunctional materials with proton conduction, circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) and a magneto-optical Faraday effect would provide a great opportunity for applications in luminescent, electrical, magneto-optical and optical-electronic smart devices. However, such types of multifunctional systems have rarely been reported. Herein, by introducing a chiral amine-phenol ligand, a pair of Cd(ii)-Tb(iii) enantiomers, [Cd2Tb(RR/SS-H2L)(2)(H2O)(6)](ClO4)(3)2H(2)O (R-1 and S-1) [H2L = ((SS/RR)-cyclohexane-1,2-diylbis(azanediyl)-bis(methylene)-bis(2-methoxyphenol))], were obtained. R-1 and S-1 feature the homochiral molecules of trinuclear Cd2Tb structures, which contain abundant H-bonds to form three-dimensional (3D) supermolecular frameworks. They are chiral multifunctional materials showing strong Tb(iii) characteristic emissions, a moderate proton conductivity of 1.17 x 10(-4) S cm(-1) at 333 K and 100% RH for R-1, CPL with a luminescence dissymmetry factor value of over 10(-3) for R-1 and S-1 and a strong magneto-optical Faraday effect, and they are the first known materials simultaneously showing CPL, proton conduction and the Faraday effect.