A plastic magnet is a non-metallic magnet. The first one functioning at room temperature, the polymer PANiCNQ which is a combination of the two compounds emeraldine based polyaniline (PANi) and tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ), was created by researchers at the University of Durham in 2004. PANi is a conductive polymer that is stable in air, when combined with the free radical forming TCNQ as an acceptor molecule it can mimic the mechanism of metallic magnets. The magnetic properties arise from the fully pi-conjugated nitrogen containing backbone combined with molecular charge transfer side groups. These properties cause the molecule to have a high density of localised spins that can give rise to coupling of their magnetic fields. When a polymer magnet is synthesized, the polymer chains need a long time to line up before displaying any notable magnetism. Plastic magnets could have uses in computer hardware and in medicine where the organic material is more likely to be biocompatible than its metallic counterpart. This material might also revolutionize refrigerator magnets which with this can be made entirely out of plastic instead of having a metal magnet attached.