Molecule-based magnets

Molecule-based magnets are a class of materials capable of displaying ferromagnetism and other more complex magnetic phenomena. This class expands the materials properties typically associated with magnets to include low density, transparency, electrical insulation, and low-temperature fabrication, as well as combine magnetic ordering with other properties such as photoresponsiveness. Essentially all of the common magnetic phenomena associated with conventional transition-metal and rare-earth-based magnets can be found in molecule-based magnets.

Molecule-based magnets comprise a class of materials which differ from conventional magnets in one of several ways. Most traditional magnetic materials are comprised purely of metals (Fe, Co, Ni) or metal oxides (CrO₂) in which the unpaired electrons spins that contribute to the net magnetic moment reside only on metal atoms in d- or f-type orbitals.

In molecule-based magnets, the structural building blocks are molecular in nature. These building blocks are either purely organic molecules, coordination compounds or a combination of both. In this case, the unpaired electrons may reside in d or f orbitals on isolated metal atoms, but may also reside in highly localized s and p orbitals as well on the purely organic species. Like conventional magnets, they may be classified as hard or soft, depending on the magnitude of the coercive field.

Another distinguishing feature is that molecule-based magnets are prepared via low-temperature solution-based techniques, versus high-temperature metallurgical processing or electroplating (in the case of magnetic thin films). This enables a chemical tailoring of the molecular building blocks to tune the magnetic properties.

Specific materials include purely organic magnets made of organic radicals for example p-nitrophenyl nitronyl nitroxides, decamethylferrocenium tetracyanoethenide, mixed coordination compounds with bridging organic radicals,Prussian blue related compounds, and charge transfer complexes.

Molecule-based magnets derive their net moment from the cooperative effect of the spin-bearing molecular entities, and can display bulk ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic behavior with a true critical temperature. In this regard, they are contrasted with single-molecule magnets, which are essentially superparamagnets (displaying a blocking temperature versus a true critical temperature). This critical temperature represents the point at which the materials switches from a simple paramagnet to a bulk magnet, and can be detected by ac susceptibility and specific heat measurements.

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