What Does It Take for an Organic Closed Shell Molecule to Become Magnetic?

Molecular magnetism has long been associated with metal-organic framework and organic radicals. The former offer localized d- or f-shell electrons that form a local spin moment whereas the latter comprise unpaired electrons in the outer shell. While these are natural classes of molecules to consider in this context, questions concerning magnetic properties of closed shell organic molecules interfaced with the reservoir has emerged in the wake of recent experimental surprises. In studies pertaining to the chirality induced spin selectivity effect, chiral organic closed shell molecules have been used to provide, for instance, the anomalous Hall effect and Yu-Shiba-Rusinov-like states. Both these effects require the presence of either ferromagnetism or localized spin moments. While many attempts to construct theoretical models for the chirality induced spin selectivity effects are based on uncorrelated electrons, these are bound to fail for the same reason. In this Perspective, it is argued that the chirality induced spin selectivity effect is intimately related with the emergence of stabilized spin configurations in the chiral molecule when interfaced with a reservoir.