“…5 We recently quantified the role of CH oscillators in the quenching of erbium by deuterating the ͓Cs͔͓Er͑HFA͒ 4 ͔ ͑H-HFA is 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedione͒ system, which has only one C-H bond per ligand, and we showed that any hydrogen within 20 Å of an erbium ion acts as an efficient quenching center. 6,7 Mancino et al 8 have shown that an evaporated thin film of Er͑F-tpip͒ 3 , where F-tpip is perfluorinated imidodiphosphinate ͓͑C 6 F 5 ͒ 2 P͑O͔͒ 2 N − , has a luminescence lifetime of 224 s and this system, with no hydrogen, has a lifetime still considerably shorter than that expected for isolated ions. We have recently investigated the perfluorinated diphenylphosphinate system Er͓͑C 6 F 5 ͒ 2 PO 2 ͔ 3 , 9 which forms a thermally stable but highly insoluble coordination polymer, and found that in the as-grown state, we can obtain luminescence lifetimes of ϳ0.5 ms. Again, this is still significantly worse than might be expected from isolated ions and suggests that other quenching mechanisms are operating.…”