Lanthanide-Based Multifunctional Materials

Book excerpt: Lanthanide-Based Multifunctional Materials: From OLEDs to SIMs serves as a comprehensive and state-of the art review on these promising compounds, delivering a panorama of their extensive and rapidly growing applications. After an introductory chapter on the theoretical description of the optical and magnetic behaviour of lanthanides and on the prediction of their properties by ab-initio methods, four chapters are devoted to lanthanide-based OLEDs, including the latest trends in visible emitters, the emerging field of near infrared emitters and the first achievements attained in the field of chiral OLEDs. The use of lanthanide complexes as molecular magnets spreads over another two chapters, which explain the evolution of 4f-elements-based SIMs and the most recent advances in heterometallic 3d–4f SMMs. Other very active research areas are covered in the remaining five chapters, dedicated to lanthanide-doped germanate and tellurite glasses, luminescent materials for up-conversion, luminescent thermosensors, multimodal imaging and therapeutic agents, and chemosensors. The book is aimed at academic and industrial researchers, undergraduates and postgraduates alike, and is of particular interest for the Materials Science, Applied Physics and Applied Chemistry communities. - Includes the latest progress on lanthanide-based materials and their applications (in OLEDs, SIMs, doped matrices, up-conversion, thermosensors, theragnostics and chemosensors) - Presents basic and applied aspects of the Physics and Chemistry of lanthanide compounds, as well as future lines of action - Covers successful examples of devices and proofs-of-concept and provides guidelines for the rational design of new materials