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Plot twist in the iron spin saga

Nature Chemistry volume 14, pages 722–723 (2022)Cite this article

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Over the past 25 years, the photo-induced spin-crossover behaviour of Fe(II) complexes has puzzled scientists. Now, a symmetry-breaking twisting mode has been observed during the relaxation of such a complex. Controlling its configuration using enantiopure counterions has also been shown to slow down the relaxation.

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Fig. 1: The Ray–Dutt twist involved in the racemization of [FeII(dm-bpy)3]2+ (dm-bpy = 4,4′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine).
Fig. 2: Schematic representation of the extracted time-resolved circular dichroism spectra of the high-spin state.

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  1. EaStCHEM School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh, UK

    J. Olof Johansson

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  1. J. Olof Johansson
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Correspondence to J. Olof Johansson.

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Johansson, J.O. Plot twist in the iron spin saga. Nat. Chem. 14, 722–723 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00986-1

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