Ferroelastic phase transition and the role of volume strain in the structural trapping of a metastable quenched low-spin high-symmetry phase in [Ru0.35Fe0.65(ptz)6](BF4)2

Abstract

Spin-crossover materials exhibit thermal conversion of their electronic state from low to high spin, involving both intra- and inter-molecular structural reorganisations, eventually accompanied by symmetry breaking, within the crystal.