Chiral tripode approach toward multiple anion sensing with lanthanide complexes

A chiral tripodal ligand was demonstrated to form a series of lanthanide complexes exhibiting multiple anion-sensing profiles, which incorporated a fluorescent quinoline and a stereo-controlled substituent in a tetradentate skeleton. This mainly gave 1:2 (lanthanide cation/ligand) complexes with lanthanide triflates but 1:1 complexes with lanthanide nitrates. Since addition of external guest anion dynamically changed the preferred stoichiometry, the chiral lanthanide complexes exhibited anion-responsive fluorescence, luminescence, and circular dichroism spectral characteristics as multiple anion-sensing probes.