Magnetic hysteresis in 1D organometallic lanthanide chain compounds containing 4,4′-bipyridine

Abstract

The assembly of multinuclear complexes bearing highly anisotropic building blocks remains an attractive approach to developing advanced functional materials. However, incorporating lanthanide-based metallocenium moieties, [CpR2Ln]+, into higher-order systems remains a significant synthetic challenge and their targeted isolation is exceedingly rare. Presented herein are organometallic lanthanide chain compounds bearing bridging 4,4′-bipyridine ligands, Image ID:d5sc05460e-t1.gif (where Ln = Gd (1), Tb (2), Dy (3); Cp* = pentamethylcyclopentadienyl; bpy = 4,4′-bipyridine). This constitutes the first report of a crystallographically characterised 1D organometallic network of lanthanide metallocenium units connected to one another through organic bridges. Each metallocenium moiety is ligated by two bipyridyl ligands, giving rise to zigzag-shaped chains, where tetraphenylborate anions reside in between the nitrogen ligands. The formation of the compounds from Image ID:d5sc05460e-t55.gif and 4,4′-bipyridine is very fast, leading to an immediate precipitation in the polar solvent THF. Thus, a judicious synthetic route was developed to ensure crystallisation and pure isolation which involved the use of an H-tube. Dc magnetic susceptibility measurements for 1–3 allude to the presence of uncoupled lanthanide ions, which is consistent with the experimental cw-EPR spectrum as well as the calculated magnetic exchange coupling constant, J, for the gadolinium congener, 1, obtained through broken-symmetry DFT. The dysprosium analogue, 3, is a single-molecule magnet (SMM) which was confirmed through both out-of-phase ac magnetic susceptibility signals under a zero applied dc field, indicative of slow magnetic relaxation, and isothermal, variable-field dc measurements, revealing open magnetic hysteresis loops up to 8 K. The lack of intra- and interchain magnetic exchange suggests that the origin of single-molecule magnetism in 3 arises from single-ion anisotropy and crystal field, which is further supported via ab initio calculations.

Graphical abstract: Magnetic hysteresis in 1D organometallic lanthanide chain compounds containing 4,4′-bipyridine

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
21 Jul 2025
Accepted
06 Sep 2025
First published
29 Sep 2025
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2025, Advance Article

Magnetic hysteresis in 1D organometallic lanthanide chain compounds containing 4,4′-bipyridine

E. Castellanos, F. Benner, S. Deshapriya and S. Demir, Chem. Sci., 2025, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D5SC05460E

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