Spin states of iron(iii) porphyrins are controlled by the number and nature of axial ligands. [1] The coordination of nitrogen bases such as imidazole (HIm) and pyridine results in the formation of low-spin (S 1/2) six-coordinate complexes. In contrast, anionic ligands such as Cl À and F À lead to the formation of five-coordinate high-spin (S 5/2) complexes. Maltempo discussed a spin-admixed S 3/2, 5/2 state on the basis of quantum mechanical calculations, and suggested that the S 3/2 state is an important contributor to the spin state of certain bacterial heme proteins known as cytochromes c'. [2] We and others recently reported that highly nonplanar (porphyrinato)iron(iii) complexes with weak axial ligands show a quite pure intermediate spin state. [3,4] The results were ascribed to the short FeÀN por bonds of the nonplanar porphyrin rings and the weak coordination ability of the axial ligands. [5] We therefore expected that the spin state of nonplanar [Fe III (oetpp)L 2 ]ClO 4 (1 ± 5) could change from N Fe N Et Et Et Et Ph Ph Ph Ph Et Et Et L L Et N 5: L = thf [Fe(Oetpp)L 2 ]ClO 4 1: L = HIm 2: L = dmap + 3: L = py 4: L = 4-CNpy ClO 4 -the pure S 1/2 to the pure S 3/2 state as the axial ligand changes from strong HIm to weak THF; the order of the coordination ability is HIm b dmap b py b 4-CNpy b thf. [6] Of particular interest are the spin states of 2 ± 4 because the axial ligands of these complexes are ranked between HIm and THF. Table 1 lists the Mössbauer parameters, isomer shift (IS; relative to a-iron foil at 290 K), and quadrupole splitting (QS) measured at ambient and liquid nitrogen temperatures. The QS values for 1 and 2 at ambient temperature were within the range of low-spin complexes. [7] The IS and QS values for 4 (0.37 and 3.26 mm s À1 , respectively) were close to those for 5 (0.41 and 3.65 mm s À1 ); 5 has been fully characterized as the quite pure intermediate-spin complex. [4] Thus, from the viewpoint of Mössbauer spectroscopy, 1 and 2 are the lowspin complexes, while 4 is the intermediate-spin complex at ambient temperature. Figure 1 shows the Mössbauer spectra of 3 and 4 taken at ambient temperature and 80 K. The features change as the temperature is lowered. Complex 4 exhibited a new doublet (site B) below 230 K, and the relative intensities for this site increased on decreasing the temperature. The values for sites A and B are in the range of intermediate-spin and low-spin complexes, respectively, and both spin states co-exist at low temperature. This observation implies the occurrence of a novel spin-crossover process [Eq. (1)]. [8,9] low spin (S 1/2) > intermediate spin (S 3/2) (1)