Structural Dependence of the Ising-type Magnetic Anisotropy and of the Relaxation Time in Mononuclear Trigonal Bipyramidal Co(II) Single Molecule Magnets

This paper describes the correlation between Ising-type magnetic anisotropy and structure in trigonal bipyramidal Co(II) complexes. Three sulfur-containing trigonal bipyramidal Co(II) complexes were synthesized and characterized. It was shown that we can engineer the magnitude of the Ising anisotropy using ligand field theory arguments in conjunction with structural parameters. To prepare this series of compounds, we used, on the one hand, a tetradentate ligand containing three sulfur atoms and one amine (NS₃^tBu) and on the other hand three different axial ligands, namely, Cl^-, Br^-, and NCS^-. The organic ligand imposes a trigonal bipyramidal arrangement with the three sulfur atoms lying in the trigonal plane with long Co-S bond distances. The magnetic properties of the compounds were measured, and ab initio calculations were used to analyze the anisotropy parameters and perform magneto-structural correlations. We demonstrate that a smaller axial zero-field splitting parameter leads to slower relaxation time when the symmetry is strictly axial, while the presence of very weak rhombicity decreases the energy barrier and speeds the relaxation of the magnetization.