The quest for rationalizing the magnetism in purely organic semiquinone-bridged bisdithiazolyl molecular magnets

Abstract

Semiquinone-bridged bisdithiazolyl-based radicals (XBBO) are appealing purely organic magnetic building blocks for the synthesis of new functional materials. Remarkably, for the phenyl-derivative PhBBO, the rationalization of its magnetism becomes a proof of concept that DFT can dramatically fail to evaluate J_AB magnetic interactions between purely organic radical pairs. Instead, wavefunction-based methods are required. Once J_AB's are fully characterized, the magnetic topology of PhBBO is disclosed to consist of ferromagnetic FM π-stacks that are very weakly coupled (by FM and AFM J_AB interactions). The magnetic susceptibility χT(T) and magnetization M(H) of PhBBO are then calculated using a first-principles bottom-up approach. The study of the unit cell contraction upon cooling from room temperature to zero-Kelvin is relevant to propose a suitable model for the phase transition that occurs at 4.5 K. A simplistic picture tells us that the antiparallel-aligned 1D-FM-chains convert into domains of weakly either FM- or AFM-coupled 1D-FM-chains. Accordingly, the presence of these domains may introduce geometrical spin frustration below 4.5 K.