= A centrosymmetric Dy2 compound derived from acylhydrazone Schiffbase ligand exhibiting zero-field single-molecule magnet behavior

Based on acylhydrazone Schiffbase ligand (2,3'-Hpcad, N-3-(2-pyridoyl)-3-pyridinecarboxamidrazone), a binuclear Dy-III compound, [Dy-2(2,3'-pcad) 2(C6H5COO)(4)(H2O)(2)] (1), has been successfully prepared by the hydrothermal synthesis method, and fully characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, Raman spectra, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and magnetic property measurement system. Compond 1 exhibits a centrosymmetric binuclear structure bridged by benzoate groups and each eightcoordinated DyIII ion is located in a slightly distorted biaugmented trigonal prism configuration (C-2v-BTPR). In addition, alternating-current magnetic susceptibility measurements illustrate that 1 exhibits zero-field single-molecule magnet behavior with the higher effective energy barrier (U-eff) value of 114.0 K compared to other Dy-2 compounds with C-2v-BTPR configuration. In addition, this study reveals configuration of each Dy-III ion and intra-molecular magnetic coupling of two Dy-III ions may synergistically effect Dy-2-SMMs properties. Furthermore, the band gap energy of 1 is found to be 2.65 eV, which proves 1 could be used as the wide-gap semiconductor. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.