Synthesis, Characterization, Magnetic Properties, and Topological Aspects of Isoskeletal Heterometallic Hexanuclear CoII4LnIII2 Coordination Clusters Possessing 2,3,4M6–1 Topology

The reaction of (E)-2-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylideneamino)phenol (H2L1) with Co(NO3)26H2O and LnCl3x(H2O) afforded a family of hexanuclear heterometallic coordination clusters (CCs) formulated as [CoII4LnIII2(µ3-OH)2(L1)4Cl2(NO3)2(MeOH)4] 3(Et2O) where Ln is Y (1), Gd (2), Dy (3), and Tb (4). All the compounds are stable in solution as confirmed by ESI-MS studies. The compounds can be described as twisted boat-like and possess a 2,3,4M6–1 topology. The reaction of (E)-2-(5-bromo-2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylideneamino)phenol (H2L2) with Co(NO3)26H2O and DyCl3x(H2O) afforded [CoII4DyIII2(µ3-OH)2(L2)4Cl2(NO3)2(MeOH)4] (5), which is isoskeletal to compounds 1–4. Magnetic studies performed over the temperature range 1.8–300 K show that compound 3 undergoes slow magnetic relaxation