Lanthanide–uranyl phosphonates constructed from diethyl ((phenylsulfonyl)methyl)phosphonate

Lanthanide–uranyl phosphonates possess intriguing crystal structures and huge application prospects, but the construction of these materials remains challenging. In this work, we demonstrate that new uranyl and lanthanide–uranyl sulfonylphosphonates with elegant crystal structures and photophysical properties can be assembled hydrothermally by employing the heterofunctional diethyl phosphonate (diethyl ((phenylsulfonyl)methyl)phosphonate, Et₂L) as a precursor ligand, which provides an effective strategy for the construction of lanthanide–uranyl phosphonates.