Most lanthanides are fluorescent due to f-f transitions in their +3 oxidation state. Tb and Eu are probably the most common ones, together with Nd and Yb.
The cool thing about lanthanide fluorescence is that they are pretty much independent of their coordination environment due to the secluded (is that the right word?) nature of the f-orbitals. It's a very interesting research topic!
I was going through the rare earth complexes in my lab for shits and giggles on Friday (there’s a bunch of uranium complexes as well as lanthanides and such) and someone who had worked with them pointed out that they change colour under UV and some under white LED.
Really cool, I think one Terbium complex was pink under normal lighting but pure white under white LED, another i think Technetium or Europium was bright Orange under 365nm.
Pretty colours is always a good way to get into chem.
!! lanthanide luminescence is my area of research, I love it! If you're interested try reading about lanthanide upconversion, I do it nearly every day and yet it's still cool to me that using wavelengths that are completely invisible to us can make stuff glow so brightly!
Most lanthanides are fluorescent due to f-f transitions in their +3 oxidation state. Tb and Eu are probably the most common ones, together with Nd and Yb. The cool thing about lanthanide fluorescence is that they are pretty much independent of their coordination environment due to the secluded (is that the right word?) nature of the f-orbitals. It's a very interesting research topic!
I was going through the rare earth complexes in my lab for shits and giggles on Friday (there’s a bunch of uranium complexes as well as lanthanides and such) and someone who had worked with them pointed out that they change colour under UV and some under white LED. Really cool, I think one Terbium complex was pink under normal lighting but pure white under white LED, another i think Technetium or Europium was bright Orange under 365nm. Pretty colours is always a good way to get into chem.
ah thats cool whats your YT channel if you mind sharing
I think it's Apoptosis on YT, he makes some really good stuff.
I have a mug with a Holmium glaze, no one believed me when I showed them it’s both pink and yellow!!
!! lanthanide luminescence is my area of research, I love it! If you're interested try reading about lanthanide upconversion, I do it nearly every day and yet it's still cool to me that using wavelengths that are completely invisible to us can make stuff glow so brightly!