A large discrete face-capped tetranuclear iron(II) cage, [Fe 4 L 4 ](BF 4 ) 8 Án(solvent), was synthesised via metal-ion directed self-assembly. The cage is formed from a rigid tritopic ligand that incorporates chelating imidazole-imine functional groups. The cage displays temperature induced spin-crossover and LIESST effects and is amongst the largest iron(II) tetrahedral cages with such properties reported. The synthesis, structure and magnetic properties of this new metallo-cage are presented.

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Polynuclear heterobimetallic coordination cages in which different metal cations are connected within a ligand scaffold are known to adopt a variety of polyhedral architectures, many of which display interesting functions. Within the extensive array of coordination cages incorporating Fe(II) centres reported so far, the majority contain low-spin (LS) Fe(II), with high-spin (HS) Fe(II) being less common. Herein, we present the synthesis and characterisation of a new tetradecanuclear heterobimetallic [Fe8Pd6L8](BF4]28 (1) cubic cage utilising the metalloligand approach. Use of the tripodal tris-imidazolimine derivative (2) permitted the formation of the tripodal HS Fe(II) metalloligand [FeL](BF4)2·CH3OH (3) that was subsequently used to form the coordination cage 1. Magnetic and structural analyses gave insight into the manner in which the HS environment of the metalloligand was transferred into the cage architecture along with the structural changes that accompanied its occupancy of the eight corners of the discrete cubic structure.