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Systems chemistry

All in a spin

Nature Chemistry volume 8, pages 402–404 (2016)Cite this article

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A fundamental challenge in systems chemistry is to engineer the emergence of complex behaviour. The collective structures of metal cyanide chains have now been interpreted in the same manner as the myriad of magnetic phases displayed by frustrated spin systems, highlighting a symbiotic approach between systems chemistry and magnetism.

Emergence is a subtle concept that is employed in a diverse range of scientific disciplines to describe an enormous variety of fascinating phenomena. An emergent property is one that arises in a system comprised of many interacting components, which we would not have otherwise expected, or predicted, based on our pre-existing knowledge of the individual components themselves1. Arguably, the most important example of emergence is the origin of life on Earth. How was it that assemblies of non-living, simple chemical species that existed on prebiotic Earth crossed the boundary of life to allow living cells to emerge2?

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of frustrated magnets and the mapping of assemblies of coordination polymer chains in supramolecular systems chemistry.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Leverhulme Trust for an award (RPG-2013-343) to support L.C.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lucy Clark and Philip Lightfoot are at the School of Chemistry and EaStChem, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9ST, UK,

    Lucy Clark & Philip Lightfoot

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  1. Lucy Clark
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  2. Philip Lightfoot
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Correspondence to Philip Lightfoot.

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Clark, L., Lightfoot, P. All in a spin. Nature Chem 8, 402–404 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2510

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