Magnetic and electrical bistability in hybrid composites of conducting organic polymers with [Fe(NH2-trz)3]n[SO4]n

Abstract

Spin crossover (SCO) species hold significant potential as versatile building blocks for multifunctional hybrid materials. In our recent work, we introduced a novel postsynthetic mechanochemical processing approach to fabricate conductive composites of SCO compounds with organic conducting polymers exhibiting synergy between SCO bistability and transport properties. Here, we report the extension of this methodology to the SCO 1D coordination polymer [Fe(NH₂-trz)₃]_n[SO₄]_n (NH₂-trz = 1NH₂-1,2,4-triazole). Remarkably, the ball milling processing also affects the thermal transition of the SCO component, yielding a wider hysteresis and at slightly higher transition temperatures. Upon integration with polypyrrole (PPY) or poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), the hybrid SCO/polymer composites exhibit electrical bistability at room temperature, as evidenced by magnetic, transport and calorimetric analysis.