Four new families of polynuclear Zn-Ln coordination clusters. Synthetic, topological, magnetic and luminescent aspects

The employment of three structurally related Schiff bases H2L1, H2L2, and H3L3 with zinc and lanthanide salts under various reaction conditions, gave four families of compounds formulated as [ZnII2LnIII2(L1)4(EtOH)6][ClO4]2 (1–3), [ZnII5Ln(OH)(L1)6(H2O)] (4–6), [ZnII4LnIII2(OH)2(L2)4 (OAc)2(NO3)2(DMF)3]·DMF (7–9), and [ZnII2LnIII2(L3)2(NO3)2(CO3)2(CH3OH)2] (10–12) with robust and novel topologies. Synthetic aspects are discussed. A comprehensive topological analysis of all reported ZnII/LnIII CCs with a core nuclearity of four and above is presented and identifies that families (4–6) and (7–9) are the first examples of the 2,3,4M6–1 motif in ZnII/LnIII chemistry. Magnetic studies are presented for the DyIII analogues (1, 7, and 10) are presented, 7 demonstrates field-induced slow relaxation of the magnetization. Fluorescence studies are also discussed