Research on magnetic carbon nanostructures is a young and challenging field of materials science. It is in the process of widening our understanding of both items combined in the title of this book, of magnetism, and of carbon nanostructures. Magnetism in Carbon Nanostructures is taken here in the most general sense, which includes intrinsic magnetism as well as magnetism imported into a carbon nanostructure by a magnetic guest species. While effects of the latter type have been extensively studied, the former is the subject of lively current debate. It comprises a broad spectrum of magnetic phenomena not arising from conventional sources of magnetism in materials, i.e. the transition metals of the periodic table, but arising instead from structural irregularities, from dimensional reduction, defects and disorder. Equally persuasive as the promise of novel insight into the nature of magnetism and the basics of carbon nanostructures is the prospect of technological innovation offered by carbon-based magnetic materials. These materials are lighter than their metallic analogs. Also, they are expected to be available at lower fabrication cost and to be more efficient in terms of power consumption. In particular, during the past two decades, a wide range of actual and potential applications of carbon nanostructure magnetism have been identified, extending from fullerene-based magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents to zigzag graphene nanoribbon (zGNR) transmission elements in nano-spintronics.

This text aims at a synoptic presentation of these advances, highlighting theory, experiment, and nanotechnological perspectives. Its main objective is to unite what is currently scattered over numerous articles in journals and conference proceedings, or found in individual chapters of multi-author monographs. Beyond these items, a great number of very instructive survey articles, illuminating various facets of carbon nanostructure magnetism, have been published. Likewise, excellent books on magnetism in condensed-matter systems or on carbon nanostructures (most notably on graphene, the topic of several extensive monographs that have appeared during the past few years) are available to readers, many of them covering some of the topics presented in this work. Yet, as far as I see, a comprehensive treatment of the subject, addressing the principles and the practice of carbon nanostructure magnetism in a single volume, is still lacking in this multitude of materials.