“Materials for molecular electronics and magnetism” is the name of the themed collection that illustrates the current relevance of functional molecular materials in electronics and magnetism. The issue opens with a brief history of those functional molecular materials that have shaped the fields of molecular electronics and molecular magnetism through their electrical, magnetic and optical properties.

The field of molecular electronics and magnetism has more than 50 years of history, from its origins in the late 50s to 70s with the advent of polyacetylene and the evolution of organic semiconductors, to the recent highlights in emerging fields like bioelectronics and molecular spintronics. The collection contains a written celebration honoring the careers of ICMAB Researchers Jaume Veciana and Concepció Rovira coinciding with both of their 70^th birthdays. Guest editors are Fabio Biscarini, Eugenio Coronado, Anna Painelli and Masahiro Yamashita, who recall:

“Their [Jaume Veciana and Concepció Rovira] intense work as chemists and materials scientists has led to seminal contributions in diverse areas of molecular electronics and magnetism. Indeed, their work encompasses the discovery of novel molecular conductors and superconductors, the use of an organic approach to develop novel spin molecules, molecule-based magnets and multifunctional materials and, finally, the exploitation of their properties to fabricate novel molecular devices for bioelectronics and spintronics. Their work has always not only focused on the exquisite materials’ properties, but has also been directed toward new and unconventional processing and patterning methods as central tools for the control of the materials’ properties in devices. Concepció and Jaume have been dedicated scientists with broad and deep visions, but they have been also attentive and actively involved in technology transfer. In fact, some of the methods that they have developed for fabricating and processing molecular systems are currently being exploited by startup companies.”

The collection compiles 40 articles that illustrate the constant and rapid growth of the field, including the development of discrete molecules, low dimensional materials, extended materials, hybrid organic-inorganic materials, a highlight of the specific physical properties of these materials, and illustrative examples of the use of these molecular systems in organic electronic devices like in OLED devices.

The issue includes some articles of some current and past ICMABers:

• Terahertz Raman scattering as a probe for electron–phonon coupling, disorder and correlation length in molecular materials, by Tommaso Salzillo, Aldo Brillante and Alberto Girlando
• Electrically conductive covalent organic frameworks: bridging the fields of organic metals and 2D materials, by Manuel Souto and Dmitrii F. Perepichka
• Perspectives for polychlorinated trityl radicals, by Imma Ratera, Jose Vidal-Gancedo, Daniel Maspoch, Stefan T. Bromley, Núria Crivillers and Marta Mas-Torrent
• Increasing resonance energy transfer upon dilution: a counterintuitive observation in CTAB micelles, by Andrea Delledonne, Judit Morla-Folch, Mattia Anzola, Francesco Bertocchi, Guillem Vargas-Nadal, Mariana Köber, Cristina Sissa, Nora Ventosa and Anna Painelli

• Precursor polymorph determines the organic semiconductor structure formed upon annealing

  , by Lorenzo Pandolfi, Andrea Giunchi, Arianna Rivalta, Simone D'Agostino, Raffaele Guido Della Valle, Marta Mas-Torrent, Massimilano Lanzi, Elisabetta Venuti and Tommaso Salzillo

• Unusual stoichiometry, band structure and band filling in conducting enantiopure radical cation salts of TM-BEDT-TTF showing helical packing of the donors, by Flavia Pop, Cécile Mézière, Magali Allain, Pascale Auban-Senzier, Naoya Tajima, Daichi Hirobe, Hiroshi M. Yamamoto, Enric Canadell and Narcis Avarvari

Read all the themed issue "Materials for molecular electronics and magnetism" of the Journal of Materials Chemistry C here. 

"Veciana & Rovira: ONLINE Workshop on research and innovation in the field of molecular materials"