Neutral dicyanidoferrate(II) metalloligands for the rational design of dysprosium(III) single-molecule magnets.

Diamagnetic cis-dicyanidoferrate(II) complexes bearing blocking aromatic diimines, cis-[FeII(CN)2(LNN)2]0 (LNN = 2,2'-bipyridine, 1,10'-phenanthroline) serve as metalloligands to DyIII centres leading to a rigid cyanido-bridged chain of vertex-sharing {DyIII2FeII2} squares which constrains the equatorial plane of embedded 4f metal ions. This results in a novel convenient route to rationally designed single-molecule magnets as the magnetic anisotropy of DyIII centres can be efficiently generated by inserting aromatic N-oxide ligands on labile axial positions.