• Question: What are fluorescent lanthanide organic ligand complexes?

    Asked by thecrazyhobbit to Roy on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Roy Adkin

      Roy Adkin answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hello there,
      I was wondering when someone would ask this…
      A lanthanide is a member of the elements of the periodic table from element 57 to 71. They are called this because the first element of the family is called Lanthanum.
      The ligand bit refers to a molecule or negatively charged particle which binds to a positively charge metal atom. It’s called complex chemistry…Wikipedia (although I would never advocate it as a primary source of information) has a very good description of it; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligand
      So really all it is is a metal ion of an element in the lanthanide family surrounded by a molecule which when you shine UV light on it, it will shine with a different colour. Have you heard of fluorescent paint? It’s the same glowing effect under UV light.
      I hope that answers your question 🙂

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