Chemistry Professor Demir's Article Chosen for Cover Art Highlighting

Chemistry Professor Selvan Demir’s recent article was not only accepted by the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Chemical Science, but also featured on the Outside Front Cover. The Demir Group specializes in organometallic chemistry of the heaviest elements of the periodic table with a special emphasis on reactivity, spectroscopy, and molecular magnetism.

The cover showcases the most important features of the article:

• Uncovering the identity of purple crystals by X-ray crystallography,
• Structure of the first rare earth metallocene with a 2,2'-azobispyridyl radical anion,
• In-depth characterization of the yttrium-radical complex by EPR and HYSCORE spectroscopy, and electrochemistry.

The radical nature was further supported by elaborate DFT studies. The unexplored azopyridyl radical in lanthanide chemistry is highly interesting for the design of powerful lanthanide single-molecule magnets.

The research was carried out by graduate students Francis Delano IV and Ernesto Castellanos, with spectroscopic assistance by Prof. John McCracken, and led by Prof. Selvan Demir.