Magnetic Properties and Bonding in Organometallic Complexes of Lanthanides, Actinides and Heavy p-Block Elements
Akseli Mansikkamäki
NMR Research Unit, University of Oulu
The basic concepts of chemical structure, such as chemical bond orders, oxidation states and the tendency of electrons to form bonding or non-bonding electron pairs, were originally developed for the lighter elements of the periodic table that play a dominant role in the chemistry of the biosphere. These concepts start to break down or become increasingly ambiguous in the lower rows of the Periodic Table, where chemical bonds, oxidation states and concepts such as aromaticity can take very different forms. In addition, the relativistic effects of the heavy elements may lead to strong spin-orbit coupling and orbital degeneracy that can give rise to strong magnetic anisotropy. The resulting unique magnetic properties are perhaps best manifested in the so-called single-molecule magnets, that display slow magnetization dynamics which can lead to macroscopic quantum phenomena.
In the present work I will discuss results obtained by state-of-the-art quantum-chemical calculations on both experimentally characterized organometallic complexes as well as hypothetical systems, which display unconventional chemical structures and magnetic properties. These systems include lanthanide and actinide complexes as well as compounds of heavier p-block elements.
