Seven phenoxido-bridged complexes encapsulated by 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivatives and β-diketone ligands: single-molecule magnet, magnetic refrigeration and luminescence properties

Seven dinuclear complexes based on 8-hydroxyquinoline Schiff base derivatives and β-diketone ligands, [RE2(hfac)4L2] (RE = Y (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4), Ho (5), Er (6) and Lu (7); hfac− = hexafluoroacetylacetonate; HL = 2-[(4-chloro-phenylimino)-methyl]-8-hydroxyquinoline), have been synthesized, and structurally and magnetically characterized. Complexes 1–7 have similar dinuclear structures, in which each REIII ion is eight coordinated by two L− and two hfac− ligands in a distorted dodecahedron geometry. The luminescence spectra indicate that complex 3 exhibits characteristic TbIII ion luminescence, while 1 and 7 show HL ligand luminescence. The magnetic studies reveal that 2 features a magnetocaloric effect with the magnetic entropy change of −ΔSm = 16.83 J kg−1 K−1 at 2 K for ΔH = 8 T, and 4 displays slow magnetic relaxation behavior with the anisotropic barrier of 6.7 K and pre-exponential factor τ0 = 5.3 × 10−6 s.