Is a radical bridge a route to strong exchange interactions in lanthanide complexes? A computational examination

The origin of very strong antiferromagnetic exchange in N-2(3-) bridged complex, [{[(Me3Si)(2)N](2)Gd(THF)}(2)(mu-eta(2):eta(2)-N-2)](-) (1) has been probed using density functional theory (DFT) combined with molecular orbital (MO) and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. The analysis helps us to propose a generic mechanism of coupling for a {2p-4f} class of compounds.