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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
In the field of nanostructured magnetic materials, the top-down approach of making ever-smaller magnetic particles has been successful in decreasing the minimum size of magnetic nanoparticles made in this way. Simultaneously, synthetic chemists have employed a “bottom-up” approach to the same problem through discovery of increasingly large molecular magnetic clusters that behave as individual magnets at low temperature. These molecules are called single-molecule magnets, and they have been discovered in a variety of sizes, up to 4 nanometers in diameter. Some display interesting solid-state properties in the crystalline state: bistability through hydrogen bonding or crystallization in potentially useful patterns, such as tubes. The advantage of discrete molecules as nanoscale magnets is the monodispersity of particle size. As the molecular approach and the materials approach to nanoscale magnets brings the possible sizes of particles by each method within range of the other, interdisciplinary research into the complementarity of the two approaches becomes necessary. The magnetism displayed by nanoparticles and molecules alike at this size shows both classical and quantum properties, uniting the two types of production as a window into this area bridging the two major ways of describing the physical world. A discussion of the progress of the synthetic chemistry approach and physics in this area will be made, as well as a discussion of how molecular chemistry may fit in to the field of magnetic nanostructures.