Spin Crossover Coordination Polymers with Pyridine-Like Modification through Selective Guest Molecules

Abstract

A porous 3D FeII coordination polymer made of 4,4′-bipyridine ligands (bipy) and [N(CN)2]− (dca) organic bridges, [Fe(bipy)2dca]ClO4·CHCl3·CH3OH (1·CHCl3·CH3OH), has been synthesized as single crystals, by a slow diffusion technique at room temperature. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis has shown that the structure of 1·CHCl3·CH3OH presents large volume values of porosity (1790 Å3 per iron atom). It crystallizes in the orthorhombic Cmc21 space group but undergoes a phase transition to Cmca at 298 K, presumably due to solvent release. According to magnetic data, this material displays a gradual spin crossover behavior, along with a thermal hysteresis loop of 15 K around 190 K. However, when lattice solvent molecules are removed, the magnetic behavior changes drastically resulting in more gradual spin conversion or even silencing the spin crossover behavior of the as-synthesized complex (1·CHCl3·CH3OH), evidencing the influence of guest molecules on the magnetic properties by host–guest interactions. This property was confirmed by spatiotemporal optical microscopy studies, performed on several single crystals. The generation of a host lattice that interacts with exchangeable guest species in a switchable fashion has implications for the generation of previously undeveloped advanced materials with applications in areas such as molecular sensing.