Magnetic Ordering via Itinerant Ferromagnetism in a Metal-Organic Framework

28 May 2020, Version 2
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Materials that combine magnetic order with other desirable physical attributes offer to revolutionize our energy landscape. Indeed, such materials could find transformative applications in spintronics, quantum sensing, low-density magnets, and gas separations. As a result, efforts to design multifunctional magnetic materials have recently moved beyond traditional solid-state materials to metal–organic solids. Among these, metal–organic frameworks in particular bear structures that offer intrinsic porosity, vast chemical and structural programmability, and tunability of electronic properties. Nevertheless, magnetic order within metal–organic frameworks has generally been limited to low temperatures, owing largely to challenges in creating strong magnetic exchange in extended metal–organic solids. Here, we employ the phenomenon of itinerant ferromagnetism to realize magnetic ordering at TC = 225 K in a mixed-valence chromium(II/III) triazolate compound, representing the highest ferromagnetic ordering temperature yet observed in a metal–organic framework. The itinerant ferromagnetism is shown to proceed via a double-exchange mechanism, the first such observation in any metal–organic material. Critically, this mechanism results in variable-temperature conductivity with barrierless charge transport below TC and a large negative magnetoresistance of 23% at 5 K. These observations suggest applications for double-exchange-based coordination solids in the emergent fields of magnetoelectrics and spintronics. Taken together, the insights gleaned from these results are expected to provide a blueprint for the design and synthesis of porous materials with synergistic high-temperature magnetic and charge transport properties.

Keywords

metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)
Double Exchange Systems
conductive MOFs
Magnetic MOFs

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
SI
Description
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.