Large Clusters of Metal Ions: the Transition from Molecular to Bulk Magnets

Clusters of metal ions are a class of compounds actively investigated for their magnetic properties, which should gradually change from those of simple paramagnets to those of bulk magnets. However, their interest lies in a number of different disciplines: chemistry, which seeks new synthetic strategies to make larger and larger clusters in a controlled manner; physics, which can test the validity of quantum mechanical approaches at the nanometer scale; and biology, which can use them as models of biomineralization of magnetic particles.