ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the most encountered types of functional molecular materials, presents them as a function of their physical properties. The field of magnetic molecular materials comprises a wealth of molecular systems, ranging from mononuclear transition metals and lanthanide complexes to coordination polymers of various dimensionalities, polynuclear assemblies, organic radicals, and supramolecular architectures. The most encountered magnetic properties and peculiar behaviors shown by magnetic molecular materials can be summarized as follows: paramagnetism, ferromagnetism, antiferromagnetism, ferrimagnetism, spin crossover, valence tautomerism, and slow magnetic relaxation. The discovery of the first single-molecule magnets prompted the chemists' community to make efforts to increase the number of magnetic ions within a molecular unit. The chapter presents the main classes of conducting molecular materials with points out which electronic and structural features are required to prepare molecular components with good transport properties.
