Role of Topology in Spin Alignment of Organic Materials

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt is shown that the spin alignment in organic molecules as determined by single crystal ESR is highly dependent on the topological nature of their molecular pi electron networks. The three topological isomers of a high-spin molecule, biphenyl-n,n′-bis(phenylmethylene), abbreviated as BP-3,3′-BPM, BP-3,4′-BPM and BP-4,4′-BPM are taken as model compounds. BP-3,3′-BPM has a unique spin alignment for which the simple molecular orbital and valence bond methods predict different ground-state spin multiplicities. The above remarkable feature of spin alignment in organic high-spin molecule is interpreted in terms of their spin density distributions which have been determined by a single crystal ENDOR technique and compared with theoretical values calculated on the basis of a generalized Hubbard model as well as the Heisenberg model. This approach is extended to magnetic polymers in order to characterize their structure of the spin sites.