On the Importance of Thermal Effects and Crystalline Disorder in the Magnetism of Benzotriazinyl-Derived Organic Radicals

Recent experiments suggest that benzotriazinyl-derived radicals are promising building blocks for the design of new functional materials. Herein, a detailed computational study of the main structural and magnetic features of two prototypes of this family of radicals is presented. By means of several computational techniques within the DFT framework, this work unveils the key importance of the thermal contraction of the crystal to quantitatively predict the magnetism of the studied compounds. In this sense, for the first time in the context of molecular magnetism, we propose to use variable-cell geometry optimizations as an efficient alternative to obtain an estimation of low-temperature crystal structures. The crucial role of crystalline disorder in defining the structure present at low temperature, and thus, the magnetic response, is revealed. Altogether, these are important elements for the rational design of future materials of this family of compounds.