Design of spin-crossover heterometallic coordination compounds

Abstract

This project has been fulfilled in the research Group of Magnetism and Functional Molecules (GMMF), at the University of Barcelona. The main purpose of this group is based on the synthesis and study of coordination compounds, which present different interesting physical properties. These fascinating compounds have many applications such as in quantum computing or nanotechnology. In this project the design of new Spin Crossover (SCO) Fe(II)-based complexes able to produce heterometallic compounds, has been carried out. These Fe(II) complexes are formed by ligands based on derivatives of 2,6-bis(pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine (3-bpp) featuring external coordinating units, where other metals (transition metals or lanthanides) could be further coordinated (Figure 1). Moreover, they can exhibit one (homoleptic) or two different ligands (heteroleptic) to facilitate incorporating such additional ions. The derived heterometallic complexes could play an important role in quantum computing, with the Fe(II) SCO unit acting as a switch and the external metals as quantum bits. To achieve this goal, it has been performed the synthesis and characterization of different organic ligands. Also, the potential coordination capabilities of one of them to produce Fe(II) complexes has been studied