Paul Rey, organic chemist and member of the European Network MAGMANet (Molecular Approach to Nanomagnets and Multifunctional Materials), has passed away. He was one of the main protagonists of the development of molecular magnetism through his work on magnetic architectures based on the use of free radicals as ligands of transition metal ions.

Paul Rey was born in 1940 and studied chemistry at the University of Grenoble, France, gaining his PhD in 1971. He was the Directeur de Recherche at the Centre d’Etude Nucleaire de Grenoble. His research focused on understanding the properties of nitroxide radicals and making them interact with metal ions to enable the monitoring of strong interactions to prepare molecular magnets. He and his team reported examples of ferrimagnetic chains, some of them ordering as bulk ferrimagnets in the liquid helium range. He also studied copper-radical species which undergo reversible transformations analogous to spin crossover transitions.

• Pyrimidinyl Nitronyl Nitroxides
  P. Brough, J. Pécaut, A. Rassat, P. Rey,
  Chem. Eur. J. 2006, 12(19), 5134–5141.
  DOI: 10.1002/chem.200600061
• Enantiopure and Racemic Chiral Nitronyl Nitroxide Free Radicals: Synthesis and Characterization
  C. Hirel, J. Pécaut, S. Choua, P. Turek, D. B. Amabilino, J. Veciana, P. Rey,
  Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2005, 2, 348–359.
  DOI: 10.1002/ejoc.200400454
• 3.0.CO;2-6″ target=”_blank”>DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1521-3773(19980518)37:9<1270::AID-ANIE1270>3.0.CO;2-6