Lanthanide-Directed Fabrication of Four Tetranuclear Quadruple Stranded Helicates Showing Magnetic Refrigeration and Slow Magnetic Relaxation.

A rare class of four tetranuclear lanthanide based quadruple stranded helicates namely, [Ln4L4(OH)2](OAc)2·xH2O (Ln = Gd(III)(1), Dy(III)(2) and x = 4, 5 respectively), [Er4L4(OH)2](NO3)2·9H2O (3), and [Dy4L4(NO3)](NO3)2·2CH3OH·H2O (4) were synthesized by employing succinohydrazone derived bis-tridentate ligand (H2L) and characterized. Structures of 1-3 are similar to each other except the nature of counterions and number of lattice water molecules. In 4, a distorted nitrate ion was arranged in a hexagonal manner holding four dysprosium centers in a slightly twisted manner.