Li, JingchengSanz, SofiaChoi, Deung JangCorso, MartinaPeña Gil, DiegoFrederiksen, ThomasPascual, Jose Ignacio2020-04-132020-04-132019Li, J., Sanz, S., Corso, M. et al. Single spin localization and manipulation in graphene open-shell nanostructures. Nat Commun 10, 200 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08060-6http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21314Turning graphene magnetic is a promising challenge to make it an active material for spintronics. Predictions state that graphene structures with specific shapes can spontaneously develop magnetism driven by Coulomb repulsion of π-electrons, but its experimental verification is demanding. Here, we report on the observation and manipulation of individual magnetic moments in graphene open-shell nanostructures on a gold surface. Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we detect the presence of single electron spins localized around certain zigzag sites of the carbon backbone via the Kondo effect. We find near-by spins coupled into a singlet ground state and quantify their exchange interaction via singlet-triplet inelastic electron excitations. Theoretical simulations picture how electron correlations result in spin-polarized radical states with the experimentally observed spatial distributions. Extra hydrogen atoms bound to radical sites quench their magnetic moment and switch the spin of the nanostructure in half-integer amounts. Our work demonstrates the intrinsic π-paramagnetism of graphene nanostructureseng© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/GrapheneNanostructuresjournal article10.1038/s41467-018-08060-62041-1723open access