Synthesis, crystal structure and magnetic properties of a dinuclear dysprosium single-molecule magnet

Abstract

To seek novel dysprosium based single-molecule magnets, a dinuclear dysprosium complex, namely [Dy2(L)2(DBM)2(DMF)2]·2DMF (1) was successfully obtained by employing tridentate Schiff base ligand (where H2L=2-hydroxy-N′’-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene) benzohydrazide), HDBM=dibenzoylmethane, DMF=dimethylformamide). Single-crystal X-ray structural analysis reveals that the key feature of 1 is neutral dinuclear complex, in which two Dy(III) ions with eight-coordinated environment are bridged by two phenoxido oxygen atoms from two Schiff base ligands. Interestingly, complex 1 could be regarded as the structurally related derivatives to our previous reported complex of [Dy2(L)2(DBM)2(DMF)2] (1a) but adding two guest DMF solvents. More importantly, the energy barrier to magnetic relaxation of 1 is slightly higher, with a value of 33K, when compared to the corresponding complex 1a of 24K, which provides a good example towards regulating magnetization dynamics in dinuclear dysprosium (III) single-molecule magnets by guest solvent molecules.