Chemistry of Single Molecule Magnets

The range of single molecule magnets that have been made was thoroughly reviewed by Aromi and Brechin in 2006. ° The review covers the period until 2005. Here, the general approaches are discussed without attempting to review all SMMs exhaustively. 

The majority of SMMs contain manganese(III) and the choice of starting material was originally considered to be a problem because there are few simple salts of manganese(III) that are commercially available. The problem was solved by two distinct routes, with the original work done in the Christou group in both cases. 

1 Reactions from Simple Salts Requiring Oxidation State Change 

Two examples of the use of in situ oxidation of Mn° salts illustrate the approach. The highest spin SMM, a Mn25 cage reported by Murugesu et involves reaction of manganese chloride with two bridging 

The second example is a family of Mng cages reported by Milios et Here the preparation is from manganese(II) perchlorate, which is reacted in air with a derivatised oxime and a carboxylic acid one of the advantages of this particular chemistry is the ease with which different derivatives can be prepared simply by varying the oxime and carboxylic acid. These cages contain two oxide bridges, and are best described as 

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