Ligand effects on the electronic structure and magnetism of magnetite surfaces

Abstract

We address the effect of functionalization on the electronic and magnetic properties of magnetite surface as an indicator of the same properties in nanoparticles too big for a direct ab-initio approach. Using well-established methods and references (namely LDA+U on magnetite surfaces) we could verify the validity of our approach, and using two typical ligands, dopamine and citrate, namely pi and sigma electron donors, we could predict that those ligands would induce a different change in the electronic properties of the systems, but in both cases an enhancement of magnetization.