Synthesis, Characterization, Magnetic Properties, and Topological Aspects of Isoskeletal Heterometallic Hexanuclear CoII4LnIII2 Coordination Clusters Possessing 2,3,4M6–1 Topology

The reaction of ( E )‐2‐(2‐hydroxy‐3‐methoxybenzylideneamino)phenol (H 2 L1) with Co(NO 3 ) 2 6H 2 O and LnCl 3 x (H 2 O) afforded a family of hexanuclear heterometallic coordination clusters (CCs) formulated as [Co II 4 Ln III 2 (µ 3 ‐OH) 2 (L1) 4 Cl 2 (NO 3 ) 2 (MeOH) 4 ] 3(Et 2 O) where Ln is Y ( 1 ), Gd ( 2 ), Dy ( 3 ), and Tb ( 4 ). All the compounds are stable in solution as confirmed by ESI‐MS studies. The compounds can be described as twisted boat‐like and possess a 2 , 3 , 4M6 – 1 topology. The reaction of ( E )‐2‐(5‐bromo‐2‐hydroxy‐3‐methoxybenzylideneamino)phenol (H 2 L2) with Co(NO 3 ) 2 6H 2 O and DyCl 3 x (H 2 O) afforded [Co II 4 Dy III 2 (µ 3 ‐OH) 2 (L2) 4 Cl 2 (NO 3 ) 2 (MeOH) 4 ] ( 5 ), which is isoskeletal to compounds 1 – 4 . Magnetic studies performed over the temperature range 1.8–300 K show that compound 3 undergoes slow magnetic relaxation.