Abstract
The orange polymer tris-(trimethyltin)hexacyanoferrate(III) (
1) undergoes irreversible colour changes, turning pale green, green, pale blue and blue under the effect of UV irradiation at 366 nm, or pressure for 5 h, or heating at 100°C under nitrogen or in open air for 40 h, while the white polymer tetrakis-(trimethyltin)hexacyanoferrate(II) (
2) turns grey and finally deep violet under the effect of pressure or heating (ca. 160°C) for a long time (ca. 60 h). The properties of the resulting coloured complexes were investigated by IR, UV-visible, ESR, Mössbauer spectroscopy, elemental and thermal analysis, and magnetic susceptibility measurements, indicating partial transformation of iron(III) to iron(II) in
1 and iron(II) to iron(III) in
2 respectively and suggesting the formation of stable semiconducting polymeric complexes of blue colour (final product), resembling that of Prussian blue, retaining their identity to form three-dimensional networks via trimethyltin connecting units.