Single-Molecule Magnets

Metal cluster complexes with interesting magnetic properties characteristic of nanoscale magnetic particles have become an attractive prospect in the last few years. These complexes exhibit magnetization hysteresis loops and out-of-phase ac magnetic susceptibility signals. The advantages of such clusters over fragmented bulk ferromagnets are their easy synthesis and manipulation, their high solubility, and their potential use in storing a large density of information. Here we will focus our attention on the family of several distorted Mn4 cubane molecules with a [MnIVMnIII 3O3X]6+ core, tetranuclear vanadium (III) complexes with a butterfly structure and dodecanuclear manganese complexes, [Mn12O12(O2CR)16(H2O)4] (where R can be an aliphatic or aromatic group) and their corresponding singly reduced salts [Mn12O12(O2CR)16(H2O)4] (PPh4), which have been extensively studied in our laboratories.