Molecular Materials: From Design to Magnetism

纳米材料应用广泛，几乎渗透到现代技术的方方面面。随着数字时代的巨大发展和小型化的推动，对新的纳米材料的探索更加迫切。纳米磁性材料代表了这一研究的一个令人兴奋的子集，并有望为更快、更低功率的电子产品、更高密度的数据存储和新的磁分离方法开辟道路，仅举几个例子。我们的研究方向是实现新型纳米磁性材料，它将有趣的磁性与其他纳米尺度的特征相结合，如电子性质。研究工作将集中在三个方面：第一，合成高能势垒稀土单分子磁体(SMM)；第二，多功能杂化材料；最后，磁性金属有机骨架(MMOF)中的主客体化学。在第一个研究计划中，高能势垒SMM将从席夫基配体和稀土离子中分离出来，以达到更实际的阻断温度。在第二个研究领域将使用积木方法来产生可以随着光、压力或温度的变化而改变其磁性的杂化材料。将合成一系列纳米磁性和可切换系统(SCO和光化学诱导的)构建块，然后将其合并以产生0-3D杂化材料。第三个研究领域将集中在将客体分子引入到多孔的Co-MMOF中。客体分子，如光敏性间苯二酚、恶宁将提供新的功能，除了增强MMOF的性质。我们的研究代表了开发和理解纳米磁性材料的独特方法，并将揭示对其独特性质的新见解，并可能为商业应用提供方向。

Nanomaterials have wide-ranging applications and permeate almost every aspect of modern technology. With the tremendous growth of the digital age and the drive towards miniaturization the quest for new nanomaterials is even more imperative. Nano-magnetic materials represent an exciting sub-set in this search and promise to open the way to faster and lower-power electronics, higher density data storage and novel magnetic separation methods to name but a few applications. Our research is directed towards the realization of novel nano-magnetic materials, which couple interesting magnetic properties with other nanoscale features such as electronic properties. Research efforts will be focused in three areas; firstly, on the synthesis of high-energy barrier lanthanide only Single-Molecule Magnets (SMMs); secondly on multifunctional hybrid materials and finally on host-guest chemistry in magnetic metal-organic frameworks (MMOFs). In the first research program, high-energy barrier SMMs will be isolated from Schiff based ligands and lanthanide ions to achieve more practical blocking temperatures. A building block approach will be used in the second research area to generate hybrid materials that can change their magnetic properties upon changes in light, pressure, or temperature. A series of nano-magnetic and switchable system (SCO and photochemically induced) building blocks will be synthesized and subsequently amalgamated to yield 0-3D hybrid materials. The third research area will focus on introducing guest molecules into a porous Co-MMOF. Guest molecules such as light sensitive resorufin, oxonine will offer new functionalities in addition to enhancing the MMOFs properties. Our research represents a unique approach to the development and understanding of nano-magnetic materials and will reveal new insights into their unique properties and potentially provide the way forward to commercial application.