First Encapsulation of Organometallic Single-Molecule Magnet into Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

An air-sensitive DyCp₃ (Cp^- = cyclopentadienyl) single-molecule magnet (SMM) complex (1) is encapsulated into single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) to construct hybrid materials that are resistant to moisture and oxygen. The hybrid materials with independent slow-magnetic-relaxing centers are expected to become a key component of the next generation of information process devices based on spintronics. The resilience to moisture and oxygen further broadens its manufacturing methods and application scenarios. Furthermore, upon encapsulation into SWCNTs, DyCp₃ exhibited clear ac frequency dependence in the ac magnetic susceptibility at a zero-dc field. This indicates that the guest molecule's slow magnetic relaxation properties are preserved, which is crucial and necessary to realize SMMs-based quantum information processing, by allowing a sufficient time window for quantum gate operations. This result exemplifies that encapsulation of air-sensitive organometallic SMMs into SWCNTs enhances their chemical stability and their magnetic relaxation time at a zero-dc magnetic field, which provides a novel method for their further applications.