Diverse Coordination Chemistry of the Whole Series Rare-Earth L-Lactates: Synthetic Features, Crystal Structure, and Application in Chemical Solution Deposition of LnO Thin Films.

Rare-earth (RE, Ln) carboxylates are widely studied as precursors of RE oxide-based nanomaterials; however, no systematic studies of RE L-lactates (HLact = 2-hydroxypropanoic acid) have been reported to date. In the present work, a profound structural investigation of RE L-lactates is carried out. A family of RE lactate complexes of the general formula LnLact∙nHO (Ln = La, Ce-Nd, Sm-Lu, Y; = 2-3) are synthesized and characterized by CHN, TGA, and FTIR as well as by powder and single-crystal XRD methods.

A Family of Lanthanide Hydroxo Carboxylates with 1D Polymeric Topology and Ln Butterfly Core Exhibits Switchable Supramolecular Arrangement.

The unique family of coordination polymers [Ln(OH)(piv)(HO)] of 11 lanthanides (Ln = La-Er) has been prepared by a simple solution method based on controlled hydrolysis. The ribbon-like polymeric structure consisting of connected tetranuclear clusters and supported by pivalate ligands and a framework of H-bonds has been revealed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. While the compounds demonstrate similar PXRD patterns and unit cell parameters, the joint single-crystal XRD and pair distribution function data suggest the significant local structure change along the lanthanide series.