Bis-cyclooctatetraenyl Thulium(II): Highly Reducing Lanthanide Sandwich Single Molecule Magnets

Divalent lanthanide organometallics are well known highly reducing compounds usually used for single electron transfer reactivity and small molecule activation. Thus, their very reactive nature prevented for many years the study of their physical properties, such as magnetic studies on a reliable basis. In this article, the access to rare organometallic sandwich compounds of TmII with the cyclooctatetraenyl (Cot) ligand impacts on the use of divalent organolanthanide compounds as an additional strategy for the design of performing Single Molecule Magnets (SMM). Herein, the first divalent thulium sandwich complex with f13 configuration behaving as a Single Molecule Magnet in absence of DC field is highlighted.