The guest-driven magnetic properties
of clathrate hydrates (CHs)
has a promising application prospect as a new type of icy magnetic
material, but it meets more difficulties for practical applications
due to its weak spin coupling character. Through examining three different
O2 CHs, O2@CHs, ionic diethyldimethylammonium
hydroxide + O2 CHs (O2·EMN+@CHs),
and nonionic 2-methyltetrahydrofuran + O2 CHs (O2·MTHF@CHs), we computationally show that the doping of OH– in the host cavity can enhance the magnetic spin coupling
and modify the magnetic characteristics through a superexchange pathway
in the ionic clathrate hydrates of O2 (i.e., the magnetic
exchange energy being −23 meV of O2·EMN+@CHs (antiferromagnetic) versus 0 meV of O2@CHs
(paramagnetic) and 2 meV of O2·MTHF@CHs (ferromagnetic)).
The antiferromagnetic superexchange coupling in O2·EMN+@CHs originates from the p-orbital mixing among guest O2 mediated by the p-type orbital of the OH–-doped host framework. Also interestingly, for O2·X@CH
(X = EMN+OH–, MTHF), the compressive
strain can significantly enhance the antiferromagnetic coupling, while
the tension strain is favorable to the ferromagnetic one. This work
verifies that incorporation of OH– into the host
lattice and utilization of strain can tune the spin coupling strength
and even switch the magnetic characteristics between the ferromagnetic
and antiferromagnetic couplings and thus improve the performance of
magnetic CHs. Clearly, the present work paves the way for understanding
the nature of magnetic coupling interactions in ionic magnetic CHs
and for the practical applications of such CHs as porous functional
materials.