Photo‐responsive Single‐Molecule Magnet Showing 0D to 1D Single‐Crystal‐to‐Single‐Crystal Structural Transition and Hysteresis Modulation

Photo-responsive lanthanide-based single-molecule magnets (SMM) hold great promise for future switching and memory devices. Herein, we report a dysprosium phosphonate [DyIII(SCN)2(NO3)(depma)2(4-hpy)2] (1Dy), which features a supramolecular framework containing layers of hydrogen-bonding network and pillars of π-π interacted anthracene units. The photocycloaddition reaction of anthracene pairs led to a rapid and reversible single-crystal-to-single-crystal (SC-SC) structural transition to form the 1D coordination polymer [DyIII(SCN)2(NO3)(depma2)(4-hpy)2]n (2Dy), accompanied by photoswitchable SMM properties with the reduction of effective energy barrier by half and the narrowing of the butterfly-like hysteresis loop. The diluted sample showed a photo-induced switch of the blocking temperature (TB) from 3.8 K for 1Dy@Y to 2.6 K for 2Dy@Y. This work may inspire the construction of lanthanide-based molecular materials with targeted photo-responsive magnetic properties.