Reversible Switchability of Magnetic Anisotropy and Magnetodielectric Effect Induced by Intermolecular Motion

Abstract

Introducing magnetic switchability into artificial molecular machines is fascinating for precise control of magnetism via external stimuli. Herein, a field-induced CoII single-molecule magnet was found to exhibit the reversible switch of Jahn-Teller distortion near room temperature, along with thermal conformational motion of the 18-crown-6 rotor, which pulls the coordinated H2 O to rotate through intermolecular hydrogen bonds and triggers a single-crystal-to-single-crystal phase transition with Twarm =282 K and Tcool =276 K. Interestingly, the molecular magnetic anisotropy probed by single-crystal angular-resolved magnetometry revealed the reorientation of easy axis by 14.6°. Moreover, ON/OFF negative magnetodielectric effects were respectively observed in the high-/low-temperature phase, which manifests the spin-lattice interaction in the high-temperature phase could be stronger, in accompanied by the hydrogen bonding between the rotating 18-crown-6 and the coordinated H2 O.