PhD Studentship: High-Performance Lanthanide Single-Molecule Magnets with Monodentate Ligands

Application deadline: 18/12/2026 Research theme: Synthetic molecular inorganic chemistry This 3.5-year PhD project is fully funded by the School of Natural Sciences; students who are eligible to pay tuition fees at the Home rate are eligible to apply. The successful candidate will receive an annual tax-free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£21,805 for 2026/27) and tuition fees will be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year. The start date is October 2027. We recommend that you apply early as the advert may be removed before the deadline. A University of Manchester-sponsored PhD studentship is available for an outstanding and ambitious chemist to undertake research in the field of synthetic inorganic chemistry in a collaborative project at Manchester Chemistry. In this project we target molecular lanthanide single-molecule magnets (Ln SMMs). Recently at Manchester we have developed synthetic methodologies to prepare near-linear dysprosium SMMs bound by either one or two monodentate ligands (e.g. Nature 2025, 643, 125. DOI:10.1038/s41586-025-09138-0; Nature Commun. 2026, 17, 10212. DOI:10.1038/s41467-026-77104-z). These compounds show the highest effective energy barriers to magnetic reversal and magnetic hysteresis temperatures of any SMM reported to date, with magnetic memory effects shown up to 100 Kelvin. Here we propose to extend this work by targeting dysprosium compounds with geometries closer to linearity and shorter metal-ligand distances, which are expected to show improved SMM properties. The successful candidate, based in the laboratory of Prof. David Mills and co-supervised by Dr Michael Baker, will synthesise and fully characterise a novel, exciting series of highly air- and moisture-sensitive Ln compounds, and will deposit them on surfaces using a spin-coater. These compounds will be studied by a wide variety of techniques including single crystal and powder XRD, SQUID magnetometry, X-ray magnetocircular dichroism, and infrared, UV-visible absorption/emission, nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, benchmarked by density functional theory and ab initio calculations. We will determine the relaxation times of Ln SMMs in different matrices as the necessary first step towards their application in devices. Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s (or international equivalent) in a relevant science or engineering related discipline. To apply, please contact the main supervisor, Prof. David Mills . Please include details of your current level of study, academic background and any relevant experience and include a paragraph about your motivation to study this PhD project.