Dysprosium(III) complexes with a square-antiprism configuration featuring mononuclear single-molecule magnetic behaviours based on different β-diketonate ligands and auxiliary ligands.

Three mononuclear dysprosium(III) complexes derived from three β-diketonate ligands, 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-methylphenyl)-1,3-butanedione (tfmb), 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-fluorophenyl)-1,3-butanedione (tffb) and 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(2-naphthyl)-1,3-butanedione (tfnb) as well as auxiliary ligands, 5-nitro-1,10-phenanthroline (5-NO2-Phen), DMF and 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) have been synthesized and structurally characterized, namely [Dy(5-NO2-Phen)(tfmb)3] (1), [Dy(DMF)2(tffb)3] (2) and [Dy(bpy)2(tfnb)3]·0.5(1,4-dioxane) (3). The metal ions in 1-3 adopt an approximately square-antiprismatic (SAP) coordination environment with D4d axial symmetry. The magnetic properties of 1-3 have been investigated, displaying weak out-of-phase AC signals under a zero-DC field. With an applied DC field of 1200 Oe, the quantum tunnelling of the magnetization was suppressed in 1-3 with the pre-exponential factor τ0 = 5.3 × 10(-7) s and the effective barrier ΔE/kB = 83 K for 1 as well as the pre-exponential factor τ0 = 3.09 × 10(-7) s and the effective barrier ΔE/kB = 39 K for 3. Interestingly, for the frequency dependence of the out-of-phase (χ'') of the AC susceptibility of 2, two slow relaxation of the magnetization processes occurred under the applied magnetic field of 1200 Oe, corresponding to the fast relaxation (FR) phase and slow relaxation (SR) phase, respectively. Arrhenius analysis gave the effective energy barrier (ΔE/kB) of 55 K and the pre-exponential factor (τ0) of 8.23 × 10(-12) for the SR. It is thus very likely that the FR process in complex 2 results from QTM enhanced by dipolar interactions between the Dy ions or the presence of the applied field. The structure-property relationship of some Dy(III) based mononuclear SMMs with the SAP configuration was further discussed.