Slow relaxation of Dy(iii) single-ion magnets dominated by the simultaneous binding of chelating ligands in low-symmetry ligand-fields

Electronic effect and geometry distortion of low-symmetry ligand-field on the anisotropy barrier (U-eff) of spin reversal have been compared in three Dy(iii) single-ion magnets through the simultaneous binding of chelating ligands. The substitution of N,O-salicylaldoxime by N,N '-1,10-phenanthroline in the distorted triangular-dodecahedronal field sharply decreases the U-eff by 286 K due to an increase in non-preferred transverse anisotropy, while the geometry distortion with CShM = 1.569 went down to 1.376 only lowering the U-eff by 12 K. The co-coordination strategy of heterodonor ligands highlights the importance of ligand-surroundings on the relaxation dynamics.