Lanthanide Triangles Sandwiched by Tetranuclear Copper Complexes Afford a Family of Hendecanuclear Heterometallic Complexes [LnIII3CuII8] (Ln = La–Lu): Synthesis and Magnetostructural Studies

Reaction in ethanol of 3-hydroxymethylen-5-methylsalicylaldoxime (H3L) with CuCl2·2H2O and LnCl3·xH2O [Ln = La (1), Ce (2), Pr (3), Nd (4), Eu (5), Gd (6), Tb (7), Dy (8), Er (9), Yb (10), Lu (11), Ho (12)] allowed the synthesis of a family of hendecanuclear heterometallic copper­(II)–lanthanide­(III) clusters with general formula [LnIII3CuII8(HL)6(μ4-O)2Cl6(H2O)8]­Cl3 (1–12). According to the single-crystal X-ray diffraction investigation, the complexes are isomorphous and crystallize in the trigonal R32 group. The hendecanuclear cluster is formed by two tetrahedral μ4-oxo {Cu4} clusters assembled by three lanthanide ions sandwiched in between. Along the family, the separation between the {Cu4} moieties increases linearly from Lu to La in good correlation with ionic radius of the lanthanide ions. A comparative analysis of the magnetic data for the lanthanum (1) and lutetium (11) compounds shows the presence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions within the μ4-oxo {Cu4} moieties. For the gadolinium (6) and terbium (7) compounds, the magnetic interactions between the lanthanide and the copper ions are found to be ferromagnetic. The dysprosium (8) compound exhibits single-molecule magnet behavior.