Synthesis, Structural Features and Physical Properties of a Family of Triply Bridged Dinuclear 3d-4f Complexes

New dinuclear MII-LnIII complexes of general formulas [Cu(µ-L)(µ-OAc)Ln(NO3)2]·CH3CN·H2O (LnIII = Gd (1), Tb (2), Dy (3) and Er (4)), [Ni(CH3CN)(µ-L)(µ-OAc)Ln(NO3)2]·CH3CN (LnIII = Nd (5), Gd (6), Tb (7), Dy (8), Er (9) and Y (10)) and [Co(CH3CN)(µ-L)(µ-OAc)Ln(NO3)2]·CH3CN (LnIII = Gd (11), Tb (12), Dy (13), Er (14) and Y (15)) were prepared from the compartmental ligand N,N′-dimethyl-N,N′-bis(2-hydroxy-3-formyl-5-bromo-benzyl)ethylenediamine (H2L). In all these complexes, the transition metal ions occupy the internal N2O2 coordination site of the ligand, whereas the LnIII ions lie in the O4 external site. Both metallic ions are connected by an acetate bridge, giving rise to triple mixed diphenoxido/acetate bridged MIILnIII compounds. Direct current (dc) magnetic measurements allow the study of the magnetic exchange interactions between the 3d and 4f metal ions, which is supported by density functional theory (DFT) theoretical calculations for the GdIII-based counterparts. Due to the weak ferromagnetic exchange coupling constants obtained both experimentally and theoretically, the magneto-thermal properties of the less anisotropic systems (compounds 1 and 6) are also studied. Alternating current (ac)magnetic measurements reveal the occurrence of slight frequency dependency of the out-of-phase signal for complexes 8, 9 and 13, while complex 15 displays well-defined maximums below ~6 K.