Construction of a crystalline 14-metal Zn-Nd rectangular nanocluster with a dual-emissive response towards metal ions.

A crystalline 14-metal Zn-Nd cluster [Zn 6 Nd 8 L 2 (OAc) 20 (O) 2 (NO 3 ) 4 (OC 2 H 5 ) 4 ] (1) was constructed using a flexible Schiff base ligand with long-chain (CH 2 ) 2 O(CH 2 ) 2 O(CH 2 ) 2 backbone. 1 exhibits a nanoscale rectangular structure (10 × 14 × 18 Å). Besides the visible ligand-centered emission, 1 displays typical NIR luminescence of Nd 3+ . Interestingly, 1 shows both a ligand-centered and lanthanide fluorescence response towards metal ions, especially to K + and Co 2+ at the ppm level.