The interest in designing and studying molecule-based magnets arises from their potential applications, especially in electronics. In the design of new molecular magnets, high-spin molecules represent a strategic field. Lanthanide-based compounds possessing a large number of unpaired electrons provide a vast field for exploration and have shown to possess interesting and tunable magnetic properties. The unique combination of high-spin ground states and magnetic anisotropy of the lanthanides results in a slow magnetic relaxation, a characteristic of Single Molecule Magnets (SMM). This research explores the synthesis and magnetic properties of compounds comprised by clusters of lanthanide ions and reduced lanthanides. In the first part of this research, lanthanide trinuclear clusters supported by TDCI (1,3,5-tris(dimethylamino)-1,3,5-trideoxy-cis-inositol), [Ln3(TDCI)2(H2O]6]3+, and metallocyanates, [M(CN)6]3- and [M(CN)4]2-, are employed to synthesize a series of novel compounds whose structures ranges from 2D networks, [Ln3(TDCI)2(H2O)3][Fe(CN)6], to chains, [Ln3(TDCI)2(H2O)4][Cr(CN)6], and oligomers, [Ln3(TDCI)2(H2O)4]2[Ni(CN)4]3, with Ln = Dy and Gd. Despite their potential, molecules containing lanthanides in their 3+ oxidation state have very weak interionic couplings and have poor magnetic properties. However, in reduced lanthanide clusters, the magnetic coupling is appreciably enhanced. This part of the research presents the synthesis of reduced lanthanide bromides compounds adopting the Y6I10Ru-type structure, Ln6Br10Co (Ln = Gd, Tb and Er) and Tb6Br10Ni. In this kind of cluster-linked compounds, Ln6Br10Co with 17e- per cluster is expected to lead to ferromagnetic coupling; in contrast, Ni centered clusters, with 18e- closed-shell configuration, is expected to show a weaker antiferromagnetic 4f-4f coupling. The structures and magnetics properties of the compounds mentioned will be discussed in this meeting.

Lanthanide cluster compounds and their potential as SMM: Synthesis, structure, and magnetic properties

248th National Meeting (2014)

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