Self-assembly and SMM properties of lanthanide cyanocobaltate chain complexes with terpyridine as blocking ligand

[Display omitted] •A series of isomorphic 1D-polymeric cyanide-bridged LnIII-CoIII complexes was prepared and studied.•Compounds formed by Dy, Er and Yb exhibit properties of field-induced SMMs.•This is the first series of cyanocobaltate-bridged SMMs formed by the entire set of heavy Kramers ions. A series of novel isomorphic 1D-polymeric complexes {[Ln(terpy)(H2O)3][Co(CN)6]·5H2O}n (Ln = Tb, Dy, Er, Yb; terpy is 2,2';6',2“-terpyridine) was prepared and characterized. Compounds Dy, Er and Yb were found to exhibit properties of field-induced single-molecule magnets with the anisotropy barriers of 68 K, 8 K and 37 K, respectively. Erbium complex Er seems to represent the first known example of Er-based cyanide-bridged 3d-4f SMM, whereas Yb is the second Yb-based one. The effect of the geometry of the coordination environment as well as of ligands field symmetry on SMM behavior of Dy, Er and Yb compounds is discussed. Among the cyanocobaltate-bridged chain complexes, the Dy, Er, Yb are the first series formed by the entire set of heavy Kramers ions which were studied as SMMs.