Binuclear Lanthanide Complexes Based on 4-Picoline-N-oxide: From Sensitized Luminescence to Single-Molecule Magnet Characteristics

Abstract

Lanthanide complexes featuring luminescent and/or single-molecule magnet (SMM) characteristic(s) are proposed candidates to develop molecule-based spintronics, memory, and quantum information processing (QIP) device architectures. Herein, we report on the luminescent and/or SMM characteristic(s) of charge-neutral binuclear lanthanide complexes─[Ln2Cl6(4-picNO)4(μ2-4-picNO)2]·2H2O (Ln3+ = Tb3+ ([Tb2]) or Dy3+ ([Dy2]); 4-picNO = 4-picoline-N-oxide). The Dy and Tb complexes show 4-picNO-sensitized luminescence with quantum yields in the solid state of 0.14% and 88%, respectively. The luminescent Dy complex is an SMM with a magnetization reversal barrier (Ueff) = 20.6(4) cm–1 under zero applied magnetic field, whereas the Tb complex is not an SMM. The facile preparation of [Ln2Cl6(4-picNO)4(μ2-4-picNO)2]·2H2O complexes showing high luminescence quantum yield (Tb3+) and SMM characteristics (Dy3+) might prove useful toward the designing of analogue luminescent-SMM hybrids suitable for technological applications.