The author of this SGER proposal aims to synthesize and characterize novel molecular ferromagnets. Binickelocenium triiodide is the target molecule for this synthesis project. It is an attractive candidate for molecular ferromagnetism since the complex is mixed-valent, and the electronic structure of this ferromagnet matches theoretically predicted electronic structure configurations. Also, the solid state structure is predicted to be a stacked-array with nearest neighbor contacts closer than other known molecular ferromagnets. The project will include studies of the conductivity and magnetism of binickelocenium as a function of concentration of dopants to include iodine and arsenic pentafluoride.
