Probing the structural and magnetic properties of a new family of centrosymmetric dinuclear lanthanide complexes

A series of centrosymmetric dinuclear lanthanide complexes, including Gd-III (1), Dy-III (2), Ho-III (3), Er-III (4) and Yb-III (5), have been synthesized and studied for the effects of lanthanide contraction on their magnetic properties. As a result of probing the magnetic properties of the Gd-III analogue, 1, a weak antiferromagnetic intramolecular interaction was confirmed, with J = -0.01 cm-1 and g = 2.01. The Dy-III complex, 2, was found to exhibit larger values of g(x) and g(y) in the ground doublet of individual Dy-III ions via ab initio calculations, and thus did not act as a SMM. Interestingly, the Er-III (4) and Yb-III (5) complexes exhibited slow relaxation of the magnetization under an applied dc field with effective energy barriers (U-eff) of 21 K and 22 K, respectively.