After the pioneering work of Ishikawa et al., reported in 2003 on the terbium bis-phthalocyanine single molecule magnet, lanthanide based single molecule magnets have played a great role in the progress of molecular magnetism. Recent studies reveal that the magnetic anisotropy of the 4f ions is extremely sensitive to subtle modifications of the crystal field and local symmetry. Complexes with high-order symmetry axis such as square antiprismatic (D4d), trigonal bipyramidal (D3h), sandwich type (with cyclooctatetraene (COT) and derivatives of cyclopentadienyl (Cp) anionic ligands) and pentagonal bipyramidal (D5h), have been suggested as an effective way to favour slower relaxation by reducing transverse anisotropy, thus suppressing Quantum Tunneling of the Magnetization (QTM). In this work we present an elegant synthetic strategy, reported for the first time, towards the improvement of the magnetic behaviour of novel lanthanide based single molecule magnets by carefully engineering the coordination environment in order to achieve maximum high-order axial symmetry axis that suppresses Quantum Tunneling of Magnetization leading to a large multilevel relaxation barrier.

Slow magnetic relaxation in axial lanthanide single molecule magnets

2019 Spring National Meeting

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