Metal-containing liquid crystals and, in particular, Ln(III) complexes
with unique structural, liquid-crystalline (LC), optical and magnetic
properties are the examples of currently relevant multifunctional
materials. Indirect structure-property relationships, their dependence
on various factors and insufficiently studied determinant
physicochemical mechanisms complicate the application of mesogenic
Ln(III) complexes. While Ln(III) and ligand environment are selected
prior to the synthesis, structural features of coordination polyhedra,
especially upon photoexcitation, are not uniquely defined. Therefore,
this work is focused on the development of theoretical approaches to the
creation of multifunctional materials based on highly luminescent
mesogenic Eu(III) complexes with βdiketones and Lewis bases. The
relationships between their structure, parameters of Voronoi-Dirichlet
polyhedra, luminescence efficiency and LC properties were considered.
The calculated excited states and intramolecular energy transfer rates
were used to determine intramolecular energy transfer channels. It was
shown that their LC behavior is mainly defined by the ligand
environment, while optical properties can also be determined by the
coordination polyhedra.