Designing Eu-β-diketonate complexes as a support of ionic liquid crystals (ILCs) with additional luminescent properties

Here we describe the preparation, characterisation, liquid crystal properties and photophysical studies of new potassium salts of tetrakis(β-diketonate)europium(III) complexes based on long-chained symmetrical and unsymmetrically substituted 1,3-dialkyloxyphenyl-β-diketones ligands, K[Eu(OOR(n)R(m))4] (R(n) = OC6H4OCnH2n+1; R(m) = OC6H4OCmH2m+1; n = m = 8, 10, 12, 14, 16; n = 4, 8, m = 12, 16; n = 12, m = 16). All compounds exhibit mesomorphic...