Synthesis, crystal structure and luminescent behaviour of coordination complexes of copper with bi- and tridentate amines and phosphonic acids

Stable, luminescent copper(I) amine phosphonic acid supramolecular networks are readily isolated for heterocyclic amine ligands with bulk in the 'bite' area, e.g., 2,9-dimethylphenanthroline (dmp), whereas spontaneous oxidation to non-luminescent copper(II) occurs in the presence of sterically open ligands such as phen, bipy and di-2-pyridylketone (dpk).