Molecular magnetism, quo vadis? A historical perspective from a coordination chemist viewpoint

Molecular magnetism has travelled a long way from the pioneering studies on electron exchange and double exchange or spin crossover and valence tautomerism in small oligonuclear complexes, from mono-to di-and tetranuclear species, to the current investigations about magnetic anisotropy and spin dynamics or quantum coherence of simple mono-or large polynuclear complexes, behaving as switchable bistable molecular nanomagnets for potential applications in information data storage and processing. In this review, we focus on the origin and development of the research in the field of molecular magnetism from a coordination chemistry viewpoint, which dates back to the establishment of magnetochemistry as a novel discipline among the molecular sciences. This overview is conceived as an attempt to orientate coordination chemists regarding their role in the future direction that molecular magnetism will undergo in its further evolution toward molecular spintronics and quantum computation. A particular emphasis will be given to some selected recent advances in single-molecule spintronic circuitry and quantum computing devices based on the large class of multiresponsive and multifunctional magnetic metal complexes to stimulate the progress in the field of molecular magnetism. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.