Syntheses, structures and magnetic properties of the lanthanide complexes of the pyrimidyl-substituted nitronyl nitroxide radical.

Four 2p-4f Ln-radical complexes, [(NIT-2-Pm)Ln(hfac)]·0.5CH (NIT-2-Pm = 2-pyrimidyl-4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-1-oxy-3-oxide, hfac = hexafluoroacetylacetonato, Ln = Tb (1), Dy (2), Ho (3) and Er (4)), and four 4f-2p-4f Ln-radical-Ln complexes, [(μ-NIT-2-Pm)Ln(hfac)(HO)]·0.5CH (Ln = Tb (5), Dy (6), Ho (7) and Er (8)) have been synthesized and characterized structurally and magnetically. These compounds can be selectively obtained by controlling the reaction ratio of Ln(hfac)·2HO to the radical ligand NIT-2-Pm. The crystal structures show that in the former four complexes 1-4, the NIT-2-Pm radical acts as a terminal bidentate ligand chelating to one Ln ion, while in 5-8, the NIT-2-Pm acts as a bridging ligand linking two Ln ions to form a binuclear three-spin system. Magnetic studies revealed that complexes 1-4 and 6 show frequency-dependent ac magnetic susceptibilities, suggesting a possible single-molecule magnet behavior. To the best of our knowledge, complexes 3 and 4 are the first Ho-NIT and Er-NIT compounds showing slow magnetic relaxation. Compounds 5-8 represent a rare family of compounds showing the NIT bridged 4f-2p-4f three-spin motif, while complex 6 is a rare NIT bridged multinuclear lanthanide compound possessing SMM-like behaviour. Ab initio calculations were performed on all these complexes. The fitting of the magnetic susceptibilities of these compounds suggests weak antiferromagnetic coupling between the Ln and NIT radical in 1-8 and weak ferromagnetic Ln-Ln interactions in 5-8.