Luminescent single-molecule magnet of metallofullerene DyErScN@I_h-C₈₀

Magneto-luminescent molecules have significant applications in data storage and quantum computing. However, design of these bi-functional molecules coupled with magnetic behavior and photoluminescence is still challenging. In this work, we report a metallofullerene DyErScN@I_h-C₈₀ exhibiting single-molecule magnet (SMM) behavior and near-infrared emission. For DyErScN@I_h-C₈₀, two functional lanthanide metal ions of Dy³⁺ (SMM function) and Er³⁺ (luminescent function) are integrated inside a fullerene cage using a trimetallic nitride template, and its structure has been unambiguously characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Magnetic measurements revealed that DyErScN@I_h-C₈₀ behaves as a SMM with a blocking temperature up to 9 K resulting from the intramolecular magnetic interaction between Dy³⁺ and Er³⁺ ions. Moreover, DyErScN@I_h-C₈₀ exhibits temperature-dependent near-infrared emission around 1.5 μm with multiple splitting peaks from Er³⁺, which arises from the influence of Dy³⁺ ion. This study provides a new strategy to synthesize new magneto-luminescent molecule materials. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].