Strategies towards single molecule magnets based on lanthanide ions

We review here the synthetic strategies employed in a concerted effort to obtain new single molecule magnets based on lanthanide ions in the framework of the research program on Molecular Magnetism funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The reported systems are grouped in 4f-2p, 4f-3d, and pure 4f materials. While the use of compartmentalized ligands, assisted self assembly, and site-targeted reactions have provided interesting examples of high nuclearity clusters, mostly characterized by large magnetic moments in the ground state, a deeper magnetic characterization of systems with smaller nuclearity has allowed us to gain evidence regarding the role played by weak exchange interactions and geometrical factors on the slow dynamics of the magnetization. In the case of a triangular cluster based on dysprosium the novel phenomenon of spin chirality has been observed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.