Chemistry
Next step in producing magnetic organic molecules
Unlike metallic magnets, magnets consisting of organic molecules could be lightweight, transparent, flexible or liquid. Normally, however, they are unstable.
A team from the Ruhr Explores Solvation Cluster of Excellence at Ruhr-Universität Bochum has created new molecules with magnetic properties. In contrast to many earlier organic magnets, the molecules – called trinitrenes – were stable in the presence of water and oxygen. Their magnetic properties were retained up to minus 110 degrees Celsius – which is relatively warm for these compounds. Together with colleagues from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka, the team led by Professor Wolfram Sander, Chair of Organic Chemistry II, describes the results in the journal “Angewandte Chemie” on 2 July 2019.
Organic magnets could offer many advantages over conventional metallic magnets: they would be lightweight, transparent, economical and could be flexible or even liquid. Their magnetic properties could be switched on and off using light.