Exploring the Spatial Arrangement of Simple 18-Membered Hexaazatetraamine Macrocyclic Ligands in Their Metal Complexes.

Hexaazamacrocyclic Schiff bases have been extensively combined with lanthanoid (Ln) ions to obtain complexes with a highly axial geometry. However, the use of flexible hexaazatetraamine macrocycles containing two pyridines and acyclic spacers is rather uncommon. Accordingly, we obtained [DyL(OAc)2]OAc·7H2O·EtOH and [DyLMe2(Cl)2]Cl·2H2O, where L and LMe2 are the 18-membered macrocycles 3,6,10,13-tetraaza-1,8(2,6)-dipyridinacyclotetradecaphane and 3,10-dimethyl-3,6,10,13-tetraaza-1,8(2,6)-dipyridinacyclotetradecaphane, respectively, which contain ethylene and methylethylene spacers between their N3 moieties. [DyL(OAc)2]OAc·7H2O·EtOH represents the first crystallographically characterized lanthanoid complex of L, while [DyLMe2(Cl)2]Cl·2H2O contributes to increasing the scarce number of LnIII compounds containing LMe2. Furthermore, the crystal structure of L·12H2O was solved, and it was compared with those of other related macrocycles previously published. Likewise, the crystal structures of the DyIII complexes were compared with those of the lanthanoid and d-metal complexes of other 18-membered N6 donor macrocycles. This comparison showed some effect of the spacers employed, as well as the influence of the size of the ancillary ligands and the metal ion. Additionally, the distinct folding behaviors of these macrocycles influenced their coordination geometries. Moreover, the luminescent properties of [DyL(OAc)2]OAc·7H2O·EtOH and [DyLMe2(Cl)2]Cl·2H2O were also investigated, showing that both complexes are fluorescent, with the emission being sensitized by the ligands.

Luminescence thermometry in a Dy4 single molecule magnet.

The tetranuclear linear complex [Dy4(1,1,4-H3Lr)2(OAc)6]·CH3OH (1·CH3OH) was satisfactorily prepared and characterized. Its X-ray structure shows that it contains two types of octacoordinated DyIII ions, with distorted triangular dodecahedral and square antiprism geometries. This complex is an SMM, with multiple relaxation pathways, and with an anisotropic energy barrier of 39.7 K. 1·CH3OH also operates as a luminescent thermometer in the 11-295 K range, with a maximum relative thermal sensitivity of 1.6% K-1 and a minimum temperature uncertainty of 1.1 K at 295 K. Thus, 1·CH3OH is the first Dy4 SMM with luminescent thermometry, and this system is a rare example of dysprosium SMM that accesses the thermometric characteristics involving the ligand ascribed to the triplet emission in combination with DyIII emission.

Dinuclear Fluoride Single-Bridged Lanthanoid Complexes as Molecule Magnets: Unprecedented Coupling Constant in a Fluoride-Bridged Gadolinium Compound.

A new synthetic method allows isolating fluoride-bridged complexes Bu4N{[M(3NO2,5Br-H3L1,1,4)]2(µ-F)} (M = Dy, 1; M = Ho, 2; M = Gd, 3) and Bu4N{[Dy(3Br,5Cl-H3L1,2,4)]2(µ-F)}·2H2O, 4·2H2O. The crystal structures of 1·5CH3C6H5,·2·2H2O·0.75THF, 3, and 4·2H2O·2THF show that all of them are dinuclear compounds with linear single fluoride bridges and octacoordinated metal centers. Magnetic susceptibility measurements in the temperature range of 2-300 K reveal that the GdIII ions in 3 are weakly antiferromagnetically coupled, and this constitutes the first crystallographically and magnetically analyzed gadolinium complex with a fluoride bridge. Variable-temperature magnetization demonstrates a poor magnetocaloric effect for 3. Alternating current magnetic measurements for 1, 2, and 4·2H2O bring to light that 4·2H2O is an SMM, 1 shows an SMM-like behavior under a magnetic field of 600 Oe, while 2 does not show relaxation of the magnetization even under an applied magnetic field. In spite of this, 2 is the first fluoride-bridged holmium complex magnetically analyzed. DFT and ab initio calculations support the experimental magnetic results and show that apparently small structural differences between 1 and 4·2H2O introduce important changes in the dipolar interactions, from antiferromagnetic in 1 to ferromagnetic in 4·2H2O.