Crystal structure and photoluminescent properties of a new Eu(III)–phthalate–acetate coordination polymer

A new coordination polymer, poly[(acetato)aqua(μ(3)-phthalato)europium(III)], [Eu(C(8)H(4)O(4))(CH(3)O(2))(H(2)O)]( n ) or [Eu(III)(phth)(OAc)(H(2)O)] (phth(2−) = phthalate and OAc(−) = acetate) was synthesized and characterized, revealing it to be a supra­molecular assembly of one-dimensional [Eu(III)(phth)(OAc)(H(2)O)] chains. Each chain is built up of edge-sharing distorted tricapped trigonal–prismatic TPRS-{Eu(III)O(9)} building motifs and assembled in a regular fashion through hydrogen-bonding and aromatic π–π inter­actions. The fully deprotonated phth(2−) ligand was shown to be an effective sensitizer, promoting the characteristic (5) D (0)→(7) F(J) (J = 1–4) emissions of Eu(III) even in the presence of the non-sensitizing OAc(−) group.