Perturbation of Spin Crossover Behavior by Covalent Post-Synthetic Modification of a Porous Metal-Organic Framework

Covalent post-synthetic modification is a versatile method for gaining high-level synthetic control over functionality within porous metal-organic frameworks and for generating new materials not accessible through one-step framework syntheses. Here we apply this topotactic synthetic approach to a porous spin crossover framework and show through detailed comparison of the structures and properties of the as-synthesised and covalently modified phases that the modification reaction proceeds quantitatively by a thermally activated single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation to yield a material with lowered spin-switching temperature, decreased lattice cooperativity, and altered color. Structure-function relationships to emerge from this comparison show that the approach provides a new route for tuning spin crossover through control over both outer-sphere and steric interactions.