Two new rare-earth dicyanamides, namely, Tb[N(CN)
2]
3·2H
2O and Eu[N(CN)
2]
3·2H
2O, have beenprepared by ion exchange in aqueous solution, followed by evaporation of the solvent at room temperature.The structures of both compounds have been solved and refined from single-crystal and powder X-raydiffraction data, respectively. The two compounds are isostructural and are built up from irregular quadraticantiprismatic LnN
6O
2 polyhedra connected to each other by three crystallographically independentdicyanamide ([N(CN)
2]
3-) ions (Tb[N(CN)
2]
3·2H
2O,
P2
1/
n,
Z = 4,
a = 7.4632(15) Å,
b = 11.523(2) Å,
c = 13.944(3) Å,
= 94.06(3)
,
V = 1196.2(4) Å
3; Eu[N(CN)
2]
3·2H
2O,
P2
1/
n,
Z = 4,
a = 7.4780(3) Å,
b = 11.
5429(5) Å,
c = 13.9756(7) Å,
= 93.998(4)
,
V = 1203.41(10) Å
3). Annealing of the hydratedphases of Ln[N(CN)
2]
3·2H
2O (Ln = Eu, Tb) at 150
C under an argon atmosphere leads to the formationof nonhydrated Ln[N(CN)
2]
3 (Ln = Eu, Tb). Both the hydrated (Eu[N(CN)
2]
3·2H
2O) and nonhydrated(Eu[N(CN)
2]
3) europium(III) dicyanamides show red luminescence due to the dominant intensity of
5D
0-
7F
J (
J = 1, 2, 4) emission lines by excitation at 365 nm. The broad excitation band of europium(III)dicyanamide (fwhm = 8000 cm
-1) ranging between 260 and 420 nm with
max 30000 cm
-1 is ascribedto a Eu-N charge-transfer transition, which is significantly shifted to lower energy compared to that ofoxo compounds due to the nephalauxetic effect. Similarly, both the hydrated (Tb[N(CN)
2]
3·2H
2O) andnonhydrated (Tb[N(CN)
2]
3) terbium(III) dicyanamides show green emission at
exc = 365 nm, arisingmainly from the dominant
5D
0-
7F
4 transition. However, unlike europium(III) dicyanamide, the broadexcitation band of terbium(III) dicyanamide ranging between 250 and 400 nm with a maximum at 33000cm
-1 can be assigned to the 4f
8-4f
75d
1 transition of Tb
3+.