Molecular Magnetism

Molecular magnetism can be defined as the interdisciplinary area where the techniques of molecular chemistry are exploited in order to design and to synthesize new classes of magnetic materials, which are based on molecular lattices. The constituent molecular bricks have to bear unpaired electrons, which can be located either in s- or p-orbitals, as the case in pure organic magnets, or in d- or f-orbitals involving transition, lanthanide or even actinide metal ions

The self-assembly of molecule-based magnetic materials involves principally (i) organic bricks (rectangles) and (ii) inorganic metal ions or clusters (spheres).

Among the multitude of molecular magnetic materials, two principal systems are studied by our research group: (i) spin transition compounds and (ii) single molecule magnets (SMMs).