The goal of this study was to design a ligand system which can accommodate single lanthanide(iii)-ions and investigate the properties of the resulting complexes. The complexes of all the accesible lanthanides and yttrium with the new ligand LH6 = N,N'-dimethyl-N,N'-ethylene-bis(5-bromo-3-(1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)hydrazineylidene)-2-hydroxybenzylamine) were obtained in high yield at room temperature under aerobic reaction conditions. The corresponding compounds were characterised using X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, elemental analysis and the optical properties of all complexes were investigated using UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy. The air stable complexes efficiently transform biomass furfural to trans-4,5-cyclopentenones in high yield.