Researchers gain better understanding of radical/cobalt interfaces
Researchers at the University of Tübingen, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, University of Nebraska and Trinity College have used a very thin layer of radicals, 10000 times thinner than a human hair, to coat a ferromagnetic material, polycrystalline cobalt, to change the magnetic properties of cobalt at the junction with the radicals.
Purely organic radicals are a family of molecules composed only of light elements, such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. They are transparent, light, and flexible materials. They promise lower costs of production and sustainable, and recyclable chemistry. These radicals are organic molecules that carry an unpaired electron, i.e., they are materials with permanent magnetic properties. They must be used as a film in a device, i.e., the radical molecules cover a substrate such as a metal surface, forming a coating.