The main motivation behind current research in molecular magnetism is to design systems with significantly larger relaxation barriers and higher magnetic blocking temperatures. One route that has been successfully implemented is the coupling of lanthanide ions with an organic radical to produce a highly anisotropic, exchange coupled molecular unit. Radical bridging ligands are particularly pertinent to the design of lanthanide-based magnetic materials as a mode of increasing magnetic coupling, which can often be very weak due to the small radial extension of the 4f orbitals. Presented herein is the synthesis and characterization of several new lanthanide-radical materials. By transitioning from low nuclearity lanthanide-radical complexes to clusters and chains, the number of magnetic coupling pathways has been increased. In these extended materials, combination of the lanthanides' intrinsically large anisotropy and a greater number of pathways for exchange coupling with a radical bridge should promote long relaxation times and larger magnetic relaxation barriers.

Pursuit of strong magnetic coupling in lanthanide-radical materials

248th National Meeting (2014)

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