Volatile lanthanide complexes with fluorinated heptadentate ligands.

Understanding factors that influence the volatility of lanthanide complexes remains an important goal for applications such as gas-phase f-metal separations and the synthesis of lanthanide-containing thin films. Lanthanide complexes often exhibit volatility differences that depend on the ability of ligands to saturate the lanthanide coordination sphere and attenuate intermolecular bonding in the solid state. This can make it difficult to assess how electronic factors associated with differing ligand substituents influence volatility.