A homochiral Zn-Dy heterometallic left-handed helical chain complex without chiral ligands: anion-induced assembly and multifunctional integration

Both second-order nonlinear optical and single-molecule magnet properties are observed in a novel 1D homochiral Zn-Dy heterometallic left-handed helical chain complex (1) without chiral ligands, which evolves from a Zn3Dy2 pentanuclear cluster complex (2), thanks to the structural guiding role of perchlorate anions.