Comprehensive investigation of ternary dysprosium complexes for white light emission: Synthesis, spectroscopic and colorimetric analyses

Dysprosium (Dy3+) containing four single-molecule complexes with 1,3-diketone ligand, TFPB (4,4,4-trifluoro-1-phenyl-1,3-butadionate) along with neutral co-ligands of varying denticity were synthesized and two of them were explored as potential sources of near-white light emission. The choice of ligand as well as the coordination surroundings of Dy(III) ion significantly influence the blue (B: 4F9/2 → 6H15/2) and yellow (Y: 4F9/2 → 6H13/2) emissions. The inclusion of the auxiliary ligand such as topo in D1 leads to reduction in emission intensity compared to D2-D4 due to less effective sensitization. At room temperature, the CIE color coordinates for complexes D1 and D4 approach the coordinates of perfectly balanced and idealized white light (0.333, 0.333). Furthermore, Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) values for D1 and D4 characterize them as cold-white-light emitters, while the complexes D2 and D3 are categorized as a neutral-light emitter. In addition to their visible emissions, the semi-conducting properties and suitable deactivation lifetime corresponding to these synthesized complexes (D1-D4) have also been extensively studied and found potential applications in basic research, security printing, sensors, detectors and OLEDs.