Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 19, 2026

Chemical Vapor Deposition of an Organic Magnet, Vanadium Tetracyanoethylene
Published on: July 3, 2015
Construction of magnet-type coordination polymers using high-spin {Ni4}-citrate cubane as secondary building units
Teng Li1, Yanyan Wang1, Lei Qin1
1Frontier Institute of Science and Technology (FIST), State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behaviour of Materials and MOE Key Laboratory for Nonequilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710054, P. R. China. zheng.yanzhen@xjtu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Three potassium(i)-nickel(ii)-citrate coordination polymers, [K4Ni6(cit)4(H2O)8]n (), [K14Ni17(cit)12(H2O)33]n·10nH2O () and [K8Ni12(cit)8(H2O)15]n·2nH2O (), have been self-assembled in a solvothermal synthesis. Interestingly, these three polymers share the common {Ni4(cit)4}(8-) cubane ({Ni4}-cit-cub) secondary building units. The diverse ways of linking the {Ni4}-cit-cubs and additional isolated octahedral Ni(ii) ions lead to disparate magnetic exchange-coupling interactions, namely ferromagnetic for and and antiferromagnetic for . More importantly, the weak ferromagnetic interactions do not lead to long-range magnetic ordering above 2 K in or , whereas the strong antiferromagnetic interaction in leads to uncompensated magnetic moment due to the non-collinear alignment of the spins. Further magnetic characterization confirms the coexistence of spin-canted antiferromagnetism and spin glass behaviour in .
Related Concept Videos
Valence Bond Theory
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...
Coordination Compounds and Nomenclature
Structural Isomerism
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula. Structural isomerism of coordination compounds can be divided into two subcategories, the linkage isomers and coordination-sphere isomers.
Linkage isomers occur when the coordination compound contains a ligand that can bind to the transition metal center through two different atoms. For example, the CN− ligand can bind through the carbon atom or through the nitrogen atom. Similarly, SCN− can...
Metal-Ligand Bonds
In these complexes, transition metals form coordinate covalent bonds, a kind of Lewis acid-base interaction in which both of the electrons in the bond are contributed by a donor (Lewis base) to an electron acceptor (Lewis acid). The Lewis acid in...
Coordination Number and Geometry

