The synthesis and characterization of the monocationic cobalt(III (2,6)pyridinophane, Cl 2 cat 2À = 4,5-dichlorocatecholate) are presented. The complex exhibits valence tautomeric properties in solution; but, in contrast to the usually observed conversion from a cobalt(III) catecholate to a high-spin cobalt(II) semiquinonate state, valence tautomerism of [Co(L-N 4 t Bu 2 )(Cl 2 cat)] + leads to the formation of a low-spin cobalt(II) semiquinonate complex upon raising the temperature. This new type of valence tautomerism for a cobalt dioxolene complex has been unambiguously established by a detailed spectroscopic investigation using variable-temperature NMR, IR and UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy. Determination of the enthalpies and entropies characterizing the valence tautomeric equilibria in various solutions shows that the influence of the solvent is almost exclusively entropic.

An IR microscope has been installed at the beamline ID18 at the ESRF in Grenoble, France in order to obtain nuclear inelastic scattering (NIS) data and IR spectra simultaneously. This setup combines the advantages of both spectroscopic methods. The applicability of the installed setup to the study of the spin crossover (SCO) phenomenon in polynuclear iron complexes has been shown.

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