An international research team led by Nobuhiro Yanai from the University of Tokyo and Michael R. Wasielewski from Northwestern University has created polarized radical pairs, molecules with unpaired electrons whose spins align, in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), porous materials consisting of metal ions linked by organic molecules.

Because of the quantum properties of polarized radical pairs, this achievement could provide the foundation for future quantum chemical sensing technologies and improve the sensitivity of existing methods such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.