Two in one: A new iron(II) complex with short alkyl substituents exhibits an unprecedented bimodal behavior governed by the coexistence of three phases: two structurally different low-spin phases and one high-spin phase. The compound features two distinct well-separated strong cooperative spin-crossover transitions by varying the scan rate (see graphic).

[Fe(tvp)2 (NCS)2 ] (1) (tvp=trans-(4,4'-vinylenedipyridine)) consists of two independent perpendicular stacks of mutually interpenetrated two-dimensional grids. This uncommon supramolecular conformation defines square-sectional nanochannels (diagonal≈2.2 nm) in which inclusion molecules are located. The guest-loaded framework 1@guest displays complete thermal spin-crossover (SCO) behavior with the characteristic temperature T1/2 dependent on the guest molecule, whereas the guest-free species 1 is paramagnetic whatever the temperature. For the benzene-guest derivatives, the characteristic SCO temperature T1/2 decreases as the Hammet σp parameter increases. In general, the 1@guest series shows large entropy variations associated with the SCO and conformational changes of the interpenetrated grids that leads to a crystallographic-phase transition when the guest is benzonitrile or acetonitrile/H2 O.

Herein, we report a way to achieve abrupt high-spin to low-spin transition with controllable transition temperature and hysteresis width, relying not on solid-state cooperative interactions, but utilizing coherency between phase and spin transitions in neutral Fe(II) meltable complexes.