Excited-Multimer Mediated Supramolecular Upconversion on Multicomponent Lanthanide-Organic Assemblies

Upconversion (UC) is a fascinating anti-Stokes-like optical process with promising applications in diverse fields. However, known UC mechanisms are mainly based on direct energy transfer between metal ions, which constrains the designability and tunability of the structures and properties. Here, we synthesize two types of Ln(8)L(12)-type (Ln for lanthanide ion; L for organic ligand L-1 or L-2(R/S)) lanthanide-organic complexes with assembly induced excited-multimer states. The Yb-8(L-2(R/S))(12) assembly exhibits upconverted multimer green fluorescence under 980 nm excitation through a cooperative sensitization process. Furthermore, upconverted red emission from Eu3+ on the heterometallic (Yb/Eu)(8)L-12 assemblies is also realized via excited-multimer mediated energy relay. Our findings demonstrate a new strategy for designing UC materials, which is crucial for exploiting photofunctions of multicomponent lanthanide-organic complexes.