High-spin molecules based on metal complexes of organic free radicals

This review presents a survey of the literature dedicated to the design of metal complexes of stable free radical ligands that have a ground spin state of high multiplicity but excluding extended species. Most stable free radicals have a sophisticated chemistry allowing the design of multi-site coordination ligands whose metal complexes are oligonuclear with a fairly high ground spin state. The versatile magnetic behavior of these species associated with the direct bonding of metal and organic spin carriers is described. The advantages of using organic free radical ligands for building up single-molecule magnets (SMM) is discussed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.