Conducting and magnetic properties of solid state materials are of fundamental importance for the development of modern technology. Due to the fast growing need for more efficient and smaller devices, the performance requirements for materials are becoming increasingly tougher. Our research focuses on the design, synthesis and characterization of novel complex materials which display exploitable properties and coexistence of different functionalities. The aim is to achieve a fundamental understanding of the important ingredients (dimensionality, structural architecture, interplay between the electronic and magnetic degrees of freedom) that are necessary for the isolation of systems with enhanced and optimized physical properties.

Strongly Correlated Electron Systems

In these matierals the high degree of electronic correlations gives rise to a broad range of novel and remarkable phenomena which have dramatically challenged our understanding of solids. Our principal strategy is to tune these correlations both chemically (changing the chemical composition) and physically (varying an external parameter like pressure and magnetic/electric field). We are interested in different families of such systems with varying dimensionalities ranging from 3D (fullerides, perovskite-based fluorides) to low dimensional (2D/1D rare-earth intermetallics, 1D electron doped metallophthalocyanines) materials.

Photo- and piezo-switchable multifunctional molecular materials

We are using light over a broad range of energies and hydrostatic pressure as external stimuli to trap and characterize otherwise inaccessible excited states in multifunctional molecular materials (e.g. Prussian blue analogues). The facile interconversion between a number of hidden metastable states with differing charge (electronic) and spin (magnetic) states at temperatures ranging from 10 K to room temperature is highly desirable for technological applications such as memory storage.

Nanostructured molecular magnetic materials

Our work is directed towards the preparation, control and understanding of the growth mechanism and associated structural and physical response of Prussian Blue analogues based solids at the nanoscale (nanoparticles, nanorods and nanotubes). Detailed physical measurements are used to understand the influence of dimensionality, architecture and organization on the photo- and piezo- switchable properties.

Mixed C60 bonding motifs in polymeric Li4C60.

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

1. Margadonna S., Pontiroli D., Belli M., Shiroka T., Ricco M., Brunelli M., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 15032
2. Margadonna S., Prassides K., Fitch A.N., Angew. Chem. 2004, 43, 6316
3. Egan L., Kamenev K., Papanikolaou D., Takabayashi Y., Margadonna S., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 6034
4. Taguchi Y., Miyake T., Margadonna S., Kato K., Prassides K., and Iwasa Y, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 3313-3323
5. Margadonna S., Karotsis G., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 16436
6. Margadonna S., Karotsis G., J. Mater. Chem., 2007, 17, 2013