Relationships between temperature, magnetic moment, and continuous symmetry measures in spin crossover complexes.

A study of the changes in the symmetry of the metal coordination sphere that accompany spin crossover transitions has been carried out. Changes in symmetry have been calibrated by using the continuous symmetry measures approach. Different behaviors have been found for several families of complexes, depending on the nature of their ligands. The most remarkable changes take place for trischelate complexes, for which octahedricity, trigonal prismacity, chirality, bite angle, bond distance, tempeature, pressure, magnetic moment, and density are correlated.