Unusual manganese-lanthanide clusters from the use of phthalic acid

Charlotte S. Bailey, Khalil A. Abboud, and George Christou

University of Florida

The synthesis of heterometallic manganese-lanthanide clusters has been under exploration for the last few decades due to their relevance to catalysis and molecular magnetism. Dicarboxylates have been used as bridging ligands in manganese cluster chemistry and as linking ligands in supramolecular manganese cluster chemistry. When used as bridging ligands, dicarboxylates have often yielded manganese clusters with unusual topologies unique to these dicarboxylates. Such clusters are often mixed-valent and exhibit interesting magnetic properties. To our knowledge, the use of dicarboxylate ligands in heterometallic manganese cluster chemistry has not been reported, and therefore we began to investigate manganese-cerium and manganese-lanthanide cluster chemistry involving dicarboxylates. Here, we report the results of these efforts to isolate new Mn/Ln-oxo clusters using phthalic acid. The synthesis, crystal structures and magnetic properties of some novel clusters with an unusual topology will be described.