Binuclear Lanthanide Complexes Based on 4-Picoline-<i>N</i>-oxide: From Sensitized Luminescence to Single-Molecule Magnet Characteristics
Senthil Kumar Kuppusamy, Eufemio Moreno Pineda, Aline Nonat, Benoı̂t Heinrich, Lydia Karmazin, Loı̈c J. Charbonnière, Mario Ruben
Abstract
Lanthanide complexes featuring luminescent and/or single-molecule magnet (SMM) characteristic(s) are proposed candidates to develop molecule-based spintronics, memory, and quantum information processing (QIP) device architectures. Herein, we report on the luminescent and/or SMM characteristic(s) of charge-neutral binuclear lanthanide complexes─[Ln 2 Cl 6 (4-picNO) 4 (μ 2 -4-picNO) 2 ]·2H 2 O (Ln 3+ = Tb 3+ ([Tb 2 ]) or Dy 3+ ([Dy 2 ]); 4-picNO = 4-picoline- N -oxide). The Dy and Tb complexes show 4-picNO-sensitized luminescence with quantum yields in the solid state of 0.14% and 88%, respectively. The luminescent Dy complex is an SMM with a magnetization reversal barrier ( U eff ) = 20.6(4) cm –1 under zero applied magnetic field, whereas the Tb complex is not an SMM. The facile preparation of [Ln 2 Cl 6 (4-picNO) 4 (μ 2 -4-picNO) 2 ]·2H 2 O complexes showing high luminescence quantum yield (Tb 3+ ) and SMM characteristics (Dy 3+ ) might prove useful toward the designing of analogue luminescent-SMM hybrids suitable for technological applications.