A series of di-, tri- and tetranuclear lanthanide clusters with slow magnetic relaxation for Dy2 and Dy4

A series of dinuclear, trinuclear and tetranuclear lanthanide complexes, formulated as [Nd2(Acc)6(H2O)4]3 [Nd2(Acc)6(H2O)6]·Cl24·8H2O (1), [Dy2(Acc)4(H2O)8]·Cl6·5.89H2O (2), [Ln3(Acc)10(H2O)6]·(ClO4)9·4H2O (Ln = La, (3); Nd, (4)) and [Ln4(μ3-OH)4(Acc)6(H2O)7(ClO4)] ·(ClO4)7·11H2O (Ln = Dy, (5); Yb, (6)), have been synthesized through the reaction of 1-amino cyclohexanel-carboxylic acid (Acc) and LnCl3/Ln(ClO4)3. Crystal structure analysis reveals that complexes 1 and 2 show dinuclear lanthanide cluster, complexes 3 and 4 have three lanthanide ions with a linear arrangement, while complexes 5 and 6 exhibit a cubane-like [Ln4(μ3-OH)4]8+ (Ln = Dy and Yb) cluster core. Their structural variations are attributed to the effect of anions and lanthanide contraction. Magnetic studies indicate that the Dy2 and Dy4 clusters exhibit slow relaxation of magnetization.