Bistable spin-crossover nanoparticles for molecular electronics

Spin-crossover (SCO) materials provide an excellent platform to incorporate their bistability in molecular electronic devices and confer memory effects to them.In these devices, electrical or optical read-out of the spin state is possible, which can be addressed by temperature or light.The use of SCO nanoparticles (NPs) as components of electronic devices can overcome the intrinsic limitations of these metal complexes (high insulating character, loss of cooperative behavior when approaching the single-molecule limit, chemical instability/mechanical fragility).The design of core@shell SCO NPs, protecting the SCO component through a nanometric silica shell or combining it with a metallic core to increase the overall electrical conductivity, is a useful approach to prepare more robust devices.SCO/2D heterostructures, formed by graphene or other semiconducting 2D materials in contact with the SCO component, are a reliable approach to robustly detect the spin transition electrically or optically, reducing fatigue effects.