The synthesis and detailed study of the new mononuclear spin crossover complex [Fe
IIH
2L
2-Me](ClO
4)
2 (whereH
2L
2-Me = bis[((2-methylimidazol-4-yl)methylidene)-3-aminopropyl]ethylenediamine) are reported. Variable-temperaturemagnetic susceptibility measurements show the occurrence of a steep spin crossover centered at 171.5 K with ahysteresis loop of ca. 5 K width (
=174 K and
= 169 K, for increasing and decreasing temperatures,respectively). The crystal structure has been resolved for the high-spin (HS) and low-spin (LS) states at 200 and123 K, respectively, revealing a crystallographic phase transition that occurs concomitantly to the spin crossover:at 200 K, the complex crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group
P2
1/
n, while the space group is
P2
1 at123 K. The mean Fe-N distances are shortened by 0.2 Å, but the thermal spin crossover is accompanied by significant structural changes: the rearrangement of the central atom C12 of a six-membered chelate ring of[Fe
IIH
2L
2-Me]
2+ to two positions (C12A and C12B) and, consequently, the lack of an inversion center at 123 K (
P2
1space group). Both HS and LS supramolecular structures involve all possible hydrogen bonds between imidazoleand amine NH functions, and perchlorate anions; however, the HS supramolecular structure is a one-dimensional(1D) network, and the LS phase may better be described as a two-dimensional (2D) extended structure of A andB molecules. The structural phase transition of [FeH
2L
2-Me](ClO
4)
2 seems to trigger the steep and hysteretic spincrossover. Discontinuities in the temperature dependence of the Mössbauer parameters (isomer shift and quadrupolesplitting) at the spin crossover temperature confirmed the occurrence of a structural phase transition. The experimentalenthalpy and entropy variations were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) as 7.5 ± 0.4 kJ/moland 45 ± 3 J K
-1 mol
-1, respectively. The regular solution theory was applied to the experimental data, yieldingan interaction parameter of
= 3.36 kJ/mol, which is larger than 2
RT1/2, which fulfills the condition for observinghysteresis.