A family of planar hexanuclear CoLn clusters with lucanidae-like arrangement and single-molecule magnet behavior.

A family of planar hexanuclear CoLn clusters with the hydroxyl and nitrogen rich ligand 2-[bis(pyridin-2-ylmethyl) amino]-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol (H3L), formulated as [Co4Ln2(μ3-O)2(μ-N3)2(OH)2(H2O)2(HL)4]·(CH3CO2)2·20H2O [Ln = Dy (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Eu (4) and Ho (5)], have been synthesized and structurally characterized. They are isomorphous and feature a lucanidae-like arrangement. They are the first examples of 3d-4f clusters with the H3L ligand. In addition, the magnetic properties of 1-5 have been investigated and the single-molecule magnet (SMM) behaviour is observed for 1.