A Trigonal-Pyramidal Erbium(III) Single-Molecule Magnet

Andrew J Brown; Dawid Pinkowicz; Mohamed R Saber; Kim R Dunbar

doi:10.1002/anie.201411190

A Trigonal-Pyramidal Erbium(III) Single-Molecule Magnet

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 May 11;54(20):5864-8. doi: 10.1002/anie.201411190. Epub 2015 Mar 24.

Authors

Andrew J Brown¹, Dawid Pinkowicz, Mohamed R Saber, Kim R Dunbar

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 (USA) http://www.chem.tamu.edu/rgroup/dunbar/

PMID: 25809280
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201411190

Abstract

Given the recent advent of mononuclear single-molecule magnets (SMMs), a rational approach based on lanthanides with axially elongated f-electron charge cloud (prolate) has only recently received attention. We report herein a new SMM, [Li(THF)4[Er{N(SiMe3)2}3Cl]⋅2 THF, which exhibits slow relaxation of the magnetization under zero dc field with an effective barrier to the reversal of magnetization (ΔEeff/kB =63.3 K) and magnetic hysteresis up to 3 K at a magnetic field sweep rate of 34.6 Oe s(-1). This work questions the theory that oblate or prolate lanthanides must be stabilized with the appropriate ligand framework in order for SMM behavior to be favored.

Keywords: erbium; magnetic hysteresis; mononuclear; prolate lanthanides; single-molecule magnets.