Researchers at the University of Crete, Greece, and their colleagues are hoping to find novel hybrid materials that have two useful properties, such as light emission and a form of magnetism. Such materials might have applications in the future of optoelectronic and magnetic devices, such as for optical amplifiers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and sensory probes, based on molecular materials rather than crystalline semiconductors.

Lanthanide-based clusters are of particular interest in this regard because of their enhanced magnetic properties. The team has produced a heptanuclear dysprosium(III) complex using 2-(β-naphthalideneamino)-2-(hydroxymethyl)-1-propanol and 2-aminoisobutyric acid. The shielding of inner electrons in this material protects them from the ligand crystal field. The complex behaves not only as a single-molecule magnet but emits bright blue light under the right conditions.

• A Strongly Blue-Emitting Heptametallic [Dy^III₇] Centered-Octahedral Single-Molecule Magnet,
  Angelos B. Canaj, Demetrios I. Tzimopoulos, Aggelos Philippidis, George E. Kostakis, Constantinos J. Milios,
  Inorg. Chem. 2012.
  DOI: 10.1021/ic301038q