Thermally Stable Terbium(II) and Dysprosium(II) Bis-amidinate Complexes

Peng Bo Jin, Qian Cheng Luo, Gemma K. Gransbury, Iñigo J. Vitorica-Yrezabal, Tomáš Hajdu, Ilya Strashnov, Eric J.L. McInnes, Richard E.P. Winpenny, Nicholas F. Chilton*, David P. Mills*, Yan Zhen Zheng*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The thermostable four-coordinate divalent lanthanide (Ln) bis-amidinate complexes [Ln(Piso)2] (Ln = Tb, Dy; Piso = {(NDipp)2CtBu}, Dipp = C6H3iPr2-2,6) were prepared by the reduction of parent five-coordinate Ln(III) precursors [Ln(Piso)2I] (Ln = Tb, Dy) with KC8; halide abstraction of [Ln(Piso)2I] with [H(SiEt3)2][B(C6F5)] gave the respective Ln(III) complexes [Ln(Piso)2][B(C6F5)]. All complexes were characterized by X-ray diffraction, ICP-MS, elemental analysis, SQUID magnetometry, UV-vis-NIR, ATR-IR, NMR, and EPR spectroscopy and ab initio CASSCF-SO calculations. These data consistently show that [Ln(Piso)2] formally exhibit Ln(II) centers with 4fn5dz21 (Ln = Tb, n = 8; Dy, n = 9) valence electron configurations. We show that simple assignments of the f-d coupling to either L-S or J-s schemes are an oversimplification, especially in the presence of significant crystal field splitting. The coordination geometry of [Ln(Piso)2] is intermediate between square planar and tetrahedral. Projecting from the quaternary carbon atoms of the CN2 ligand backbones shows near-linear C···Ln···C arrangements. This results in strong axial ligand fields to give effective energy barriers to magnetic reversal of 1920(91) K for the Tb(II) analogue and 1964(48) K for Dy(II), the highest values observed for mononuclear Ln(II) single-molecule magnets, eclipsing 1738 K for [Tb(C5iPr5)2]. We tentatively attribute the fast zero-field magnetic relaxation for these complexes at low temperatures to transverse fields, resulting in considerable mixing of mJ states.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)27993-28009
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume145
Issue number51
Early online date24 Nov 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Dec 2023
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Thermally Stable Terbium(II) and Dysprosium(II) Bis-amidinate Complexes'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this