Chromium acetylide complex based ferrimagnet and weak ferromagnet.

The crystal structures and magnetic properties of new molecule-based magnets, [CrCyclam(C[triple bond]C-3-thiophene)(2)][Ni(mdt)(2)] (1) and [CrCyclam(C[triple bond]C-Ph)(2)][Ni(mdt)(2)](H(2)O) (2) (Cyclam = 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane, mdt = 1,3-dithiole-4,5-dithiolate), are reported. The crystal structures of both compounds are characterized by ferrimagnetic chains of alternately stacked [CrCyclam(C[triple bond]C-R)](+) cations and [Ni(mdt)(2)](-) anions with intrachain exchange interactions of 2J = -6.1 K in 1 and -5.7 K in 2 (H = -2J Sigma(i) S(i) x S(i+1)). The material 1 exhibits ferrimagnetic transition at 2.3 K owing to weak interchain antiferromagnetic interactions between cations and anions. In the case of 2, cations in adjacent ferrimagnetic chains are bridged by a water molecule, resulting in an interchain antiferromagnetic coupling. Despite a centrosymmetry of a whole crystal of 2, one bridging water molecule occupies only one of the two centrosymmetric sites and breaks a local centrosymmetry between adjacent cations. The interchain antiferromagnetic interaction and Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction originated from the local symmetry breakdown of 2 bring a weak-ferromagnetic transition at 3.7 K with a coercive force of less than 0.8 mT, followed by the second magnetic phase transition at 2.9 K. Below this temperature, the coercive force rapidly increases from 1 to 11.8 mT as the temperature decreases from 2.9 to 1.8 K, while the remanent magnetization monotonically increases from 0.008 mu(B) at 3.6 K to 0.12 mu(B) at 1.8 K.