The Assembly of Grid-type Lanthanide Cluster

A dicompartmental Schiff base ligand was synthesized and used for the assembly of a lanthanide grid-like complex. Dinuclear Dy2 and tetranuclear Dy4 complexes were isolated from the reaction of the ligand with different dysprosium salt. Single crystal X-ray diffractions show that the two DyIII ions in Dy2 are adopted in the N3O coordination pockets of the ligand and further coordinated by water molecules, whereas, for Dy4, the four DyIII ions are clamped by four ligands through their terminal N3O coordination pockets, forming a grid-type assembly. Magnetic studies reveal that complex Dy2 shows field-induced single-molecule magnetic behavior under 1000 Oe dc field, complex Dy4 shows fast relaxation under zero field and field-induced single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior under 500 Oe. The difference in the magnetic relaxation is related to the various deprotonation of the ligand and distinct topology of the assemblies.