Linear chain substances span a large cross section of contemporary chemistry ranging from covalent polymers, to organic charge transfer com- plexes to nonstoichiometric transition metal coordination complexes. Their commonality, which coalesced intense interest in the theoretical and exper- imental solid state physics/chemistry communities, was based on the obser- vation that these inorganic and organic polymeric substrates exhibit striking metal-like electrical and optical properties. Exploitation and extension of these systems has led to the systematic study of both the chemistry and...

One of the major challenges of science in the last few years of the second millennium is learning how to design materials which can fulfill specific tasks. Ambitious as it may be, the possibilities of success are not ne~li~ble provided that all the different expertises merge to overcome the limits of eXIsting disciplines and forming new paradigms science. The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Magnetic Molecular Materials" was organized with the above considerations in mind in order to determine which are the most appropriate synthetic strategies, experimental techniques of investigation,...