Nitronyl nitroxides are stable organic free radicals that have been successfully employed as building blocks for the syntheses of magnetic materials. Their bridging capabilities together with their chemical versatility to accommodate a wide range of functional groups have led to the isolation of metal complexes of various dimensionalities that have been a major player in the evolution of the field of molecular magnetism. Among these compounds, lanthanide-based complexes are particularly important since they have been found to possessing unique magnetic characteristics such as strong metal-radical and radical-radical exchange interactions, long-range ordering or slow magnetic relaxation. In our labs we are investigating new synthetic strategies for the isolation of novel lanthanide-based nitronyl nitroxide molecular magnetic materials. We are focusing on the complete magnetic characterization of these compounds, using a variety of techniques, including SQUID and mK torque magnetometry as well as micro-SQUID methods.
