The Versatility of Ethylene Glycol to Tune the Dimensionality and Magnetic Properties in Dy-Anilato-Based Single-Ion Magnets.

We exploit the high versatility of the solvent ethylene glycol (eg = CHOH-CHOH) acting as a ligand with three different coordination modes: terminal (κ), chelate (κ), and bridge (1κ,2κ) to prepare a novel family of six different coordination polymers with Dy and three different anilato ligands (3,6-disubstituted-2,5-dihydroxy-1,4-benzoquinone dianion = COX, with X = H, Cl, and Br). With the X = H derivative (dhbq), we have prepared [Dy(dhbq)(eg)(μ-eg)]·4eg·2HO (), a 3D diamond-like network with a chelate and bridging eg molecules. With the X = Cl derivative (chloranilato), we have prepared [Dy(COCl)(eg)]·2eg·HO () and [Dy(COCl)(μ-eg)(HO)]·2eg·7HO (). Compound has a 2D (6,3)-gon brick-wall lattice and contains a chelate and a terminal eg molecule. Compound has a 3D diamond-like topology as , although now the chelate eg has been replaced by two water molecules. Finally, with the X = Br derivative (bromanilato), we have obtained [Dy(COBr)(eg)(CHOH)]·2eg·4CHOH (), [Dy(COBr)(eg)]·4eg (), and [Dy(COBr)(eg)(HO)]·2eg·HO (). Compound has a 2D (6,3)-gon herringbone topology and contains a chelate eg and a MeOH molecule. Compounds and have a 2D (6,3)-gon brick-wall topology with a chelate and a terminal eg molecules (in and in one of the two independent Dy centers of ). The other Dy center in has a chelate eg and a water molecule. All the compounds show slow relaxation of the magnetization at low temperatures (in compounds , , and with no applied DC field). The magnetization of compounds - relaxes through Orbach and direct mechanisms when a DC field is applied and through an Orbach and/or quantum tunneling mechanism when no DC field is applied.