Progress and design challenges for high-spin molecules

Abstract

In this short critical review, selected examples of current (within the past two years) synthetic efforts toward the construction of high-spin molecules are explored, including the use of metal complexes containing stable free radical ligands, lanthanide or actinide complexes, and other coordination clusters, or a completely different approach, taking advantage of non-Heisenberg exchange in fully delocalized mixed-valence complexes (spin-dependent delocalization, SDD, or double exchange). A description of reported work in this regard is followed by a brief general discussion that highlights what the future may hold for high-spin molecule design.