Single-molecule magnets (SMMs) [1][2][3][4][5][6] are chemically and physically interesting compounds that exhibit hitherto unobserved magnetic properties. To prevent reversal of the molecular magnetic moment, the use of heavy lanthanide ions is becoming popular because of their large spin multiplicity and large magnetic anisotropies in the ground state. [3][4][5][6] Lanthanide ions exhibit flexibility in magnetic anisotropy, which is another advantage of Ln III -based SMMs that is attributable to the flexible design and control of the ligandfield (LF) anisotropy. These anisotropies are correlated through Stevens factor q m as B [ We found that phenoxo oxygen donors have higher negative charges than other donor atoms.[5] To achieve an equatorial LF, we focused on the macrocyclic Schiff base and oxime ligands shown in Scheme 1, which provide a metallacrown coordination environment [3j, 8] for the central metal ion with six phenoxo oxygen donors and have a rigid and planar framework owing to the p-conjugated moieties. The ligands are formed by condensation of 2,3-dihydroxybenzene-1,4-dicarbaldehyde and a diamine in the presence of metal ions as templates. The six phenoxo oxygen atoms are in equatorial positions around a central Ln III ion, and hence an equatorial LF is produced. We have reported syntheses and structures of mixed-metal tetranuclear complexes constructed with L2 6À , [9] of which the oxime ligand showed a slight deviation from an ideal plane because of the longer NÀN distance of the diamine. Hence, we decided to employ an ethylenediamine derivative to achieve a more planar structure of the complex.The wheel-shaped tetranuclear complex [Er III Zn II 3 (L1)-(OAc)(NO 3 ) 2 (H 2 O) 1.5 (MeOH) 0.5 ] (1) was synthesized by reaction of Er(NO 3 ) 3 ·6 H 2 O, 2,3-dihydroxybenzene-1,4-dicarbaldehyde, (R,R)-1,2-diphenylethylenediamine, and Zn-(OAc) 2 ·2 H 2 O in 1:3:3:3 ratio (see Experimental Section; Scheme 1. Structures of macrocyclic ligands.