| Abstract: | It is an ongoing challenge to design and synthesize magnetic materials that undergo colossal thermal expansion and that possess potential applications as microscale or nanoscale actuators with magnetic functionality. A paramagnetic metallocyanate building block was used to construct a cyanide‐bridged Fe‐Co complex featuring both positive and negative colossal volumetric thermal‐expansion behavior. A detailed study revealed that metal‐to‐metal charge transfer between 180 and 240 K induced a volumetric thermal expansion coefficient of 1498 MK−1 accompanied with hysteretic spin transition. Rotation of the magnetic building blocks induced change of π⋅⋅⋅π interactions, resulting in a negative volume expansion coefficient of −489 MK−1, and another hysteretic magnetic transition between 300 and 350 K. This work presents a strategy for incorporating both colossal positive and negative volumetric thermal expansion with shape and magnetic memory effects in a material. |
