Phys.org June 9, 2022
Until now, molecular switching has only been possible when the molecules are extremely cold. Researchers in Australia have developed a semiempirical microscopic model of spin crossover materials (SCO) materials combining crystal field theory with elastic intermolecular interactions. The model reproduces the key experimental results including thermally induced phase transitions, light-induced spin-state trapping (LIESST), and reverse-LIESST. They reproduced and explained the experimentally observed relationship between the critical temperature of the thermal transition. They proposed strategies to design SCO materials with higher TLIESST. The most dramatic increases came from increasing the cooperativity of the spin-state transition by increasing the rigidity of the crystal. According to the researchers such highly cooperative systems offer a realistic route to robust room-temperature switching…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Graphical abstract. Credit: Journal of the American Chemical Society (2022)