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Updated: Jul 29, 2025
Fabrication Procedures and Birefringence Measurements for Designing Magnetically Responsive Lanthanide Ion Chelating Phospholipid Assemblies
Published on: January 3, 2018
A trivalent 4f complex with two bis-silylamide ligands displaying slow magnetic relaxation
Dylan Errulat1, Katie L M Harriman1, Diogo A Gálico1
1Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract:
The best-performing single-molecule magnets (SMMs) have historically relied on pseudoaxial ligands delocalized across several coordinated atoms. This coordination environment has been found to elicit strong magnetic anisotropy, but lanthanide-based SMMs with low coordination numbers have remained synthetically elusive species. Here we report a cationic 4f complex bearing only two bis-silylamide ligands, Yb(III)[{N(SiMePh2)2}2][Al{OC(CF3)3}4], which exhibits slow relaxation of its magnetization. The combination of the bulky silylamide ligands and weakly coordinating [Al{OC(CF3)3}4]- anion provides a sterically hindered environment that suitably stabilizes the pseudotrigonal geometry necessary to elicit strong ground-state magnetic anisotropy. The resolution of the mJ states by luminescence spectroscopy is supported by ab initio calculations, which show a large ground-state splitting of approximately 1,850 cm-1. These results provide a facile route to access a bis-silylamido Yb(III) complex, and further underline the desirability of axially coordinated ligands with well-localized charges for high-performing SMMs.
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