Multimetallic rare-earth systems and especially DyIII, ErIII-based materials have sparked much interest in the area of molecular magnetism due to the large intrinsic magnetic anisotropy of the lanthanide ions. When such a unique property is combined with a high spin ground state (S) in a molecular complex, it causes slow relaxation of the magnetization as seen for Single-Molecule Magnets (SMMs). Lanthanide only SMMs are rare due to the difficulty in promoting the magnetic interactions via the overlapping bridging ligand orbitals with the contracted 4f orbital of the ions. Toward the goal of inducing significant magnetic interaction between lanthanide ions and subsequently isolating high-energy barrier SMMs, our research is currently focused on the use of phenoxide bridges as superexchange pathways between spin carriers.[1-4] In addition, organometallic lanthanide sandwich complexes provided an alternative approach for understanding intriguing quantum mechanical properties of SMMs.[5-8]

References:

1. Lin, P.-H.; Murugesu, M.* and co-workers , Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2008, 47, 8848.

2. Lin, P.-H.; Murugesu, M.* and co-workers, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2009, 48, 9489.

3. Long, J.; Murugesu, M.* and co-workers, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 5319.

4. Habib, F.; Murugesu, M.* and co-workers, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 8830.

5. Jeletic, M.; Murugesu. M.* and co-workers, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 19286.

6. Le Roy, J.; Murugesu. M.* and co-workers, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, 3502.

7. Le Roy, J.; Murugesu. M.* and co-workers, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 8003.

8. Le Roy, J.; Murugesu. M.* and co-workers, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 4413.

contact: M.Murugesu @ uottawa.ca

Web: http://www.science.uottawa.ca/~mmuruges/