The Peter Day Series of Magnetic (Super)Conductors

Abstract

Here, we review the different series of (super)conducting and magnetic radical salts prepared with organic donors of the tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) family and oxalato-based metal complexes (ox = oxalate = C2O42−). Although most of these radical salts have been prepared with the donor bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (BEDT-TTF = ET), we also include all the salts prepared with other TTF-type donors such as tetrathiafulvalene (TTF), tetramethyl-tetrathiafulvalene (TM-TTF), bis(ethylenediseleno)tetrathiafulvalene (BEST), bis(ethylenedithio)tetraselenafulvalene (BETS) and 4,5-bis((2S)-2-hydroxypropylthio)-4′,5′-(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (DMPET). Most of the oxalate-based complexes are monomers of the type [MIII(C2O4)3]3−, [Ge(C2O4)3]2− or [Cu(C2O4)2]2−, but we also include the reported salts with [Fe2(C2O4)5]4− dimers, [MII(H2O)2[MIII(C2O4)3]2]4− trimers and homo- or heterometallic extended 2D layers such as [MIIMIII(C2O4)3]− and [MII2(C2O4)3]2−. We will present the different structural families and their magnetic properties (such as diamagnetism, paramagnetism, antiferromagnetism, ferromagnetism and even long-range magnetic ordering) that coexist with interesting electrical properties (such as semiconductivity, metallic conductivity and even superconductivity). We will focus on the electrical and magnetic properties of the so-called Day series formulated as β″-(BEDT-TTF)4[A+MIII(C2O4)3]·G, which represents the largest family of paramagnetic metals and superconductors reported to date, with more than fifty reported examples.

Keywords

• oxalato
• tris(oxalato) complexes
• TTF
• BEDT-TTF
• radical salts
• conducting