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 DyIII complex, 2, was found to exhibit larger values of gx and gy in the ground doublet of individual DyIII ions via ab initio calculations, and thus did not act as a SMM. Interestingly, the ErIII (4) and YbIII (5) complexes exhibited slow relaxation of the magnetization under an applied dc field with effective energy barriers (Ueff) of 21 K and 22 K, respectively.