Transition Metal-Lanthanide Bonded Single Molecule Magnets Featuring High Spin Transition Metal Centers

Amanda Reynolds* and Brian Dolinar
C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation No.: 112

Assigned Category (Presentation Format): Physical Sciences (Poster Presentations)

Student’s Major: Chemistry; Mathematics

Single molecule magnets (SMMs) act as electron spin-driven information storage devices and have a substantial amount of storage space compared to that of current magnetic hard drives. Current SMMs consists of anisotropic lanthanide ions (e.g. Tb3+, Dy3+) and bulky organic ligands that enforce an axial coordination geometry to maximize magnetic anisotropy. The metal ion anisotropy results in a thermal barrier to spin flipping, allowing them to exhibit magnetic memory behavior, but these compounds only act as SMMs at low temperatures. One of the main problems with current SMMs is their propensity to undergo quantum tunneling of the magnetization (QTM), which circumvents the thermal barrier to spin flipping. Introducing magnetic exchange coupling into these compounds has been shown to suppress QTM and improve SMM behavior. This research aims to maximize exchange coupling in SMMs by synthesizing Dysprosium (III)- Manganese (0) compounds with a high spin transition metal-lanthanide bond and bulky amide ligands. The multi-step synthesis of the ligand has successfully been completed, and the process of attaching this ligand to a transition metal is in progress.

Funding: NSF, CHE-1852369

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: the WVU Chemistry REU (Brian Popp & Michelle Richards-Babb)