Surface-Bulk 2D Spin-Crossover Nanoparticles within Ising-like Model Solved by Using Entropic Sampling Technique

Abstract

We model the thermal effects in different 2D spin-crossover (SCO) square lattices within the frame of the Ising-like model using Monte Carlo entropic sampling (MCES) method to enhance the scan of macrostates beyond the most probable thermal ones. In fact, MCES allows access to the metastable states, and it is then well adapted to study thermal hysteresis properties. In this contribution, we distinguish, for the first time, the interaction between molecules located in bulk at the surface and those connecting the bulk and surface regions of an SCO lattice. In addition, an extra ligand field contribution is assigned to surface molecules through an interaction parameter L. In the absence of environmental effects on surface nanoparticles, a single thermal hysteresis loop increasing with the lattice size is simulated with a unique bulk and surface equilibrium temperature Teq=Teqbulk= Teqsurf. When environmental effects are accounted for, a two-step behavior associated with two hysteresis loops of widths ΔTS (for the surface) and ΔTB (for the bulk) with an intermediate plateau 14 K wide is obtained in the thermal dependence of the high-spin (HS) fraction for the 6 × 6 lattice. The surface and bulk equilibrium temperatures are then different, both decreasing towards lower values, and the L parameter controls the three states’ behavior as well as the hysteresis loop interval. Size effects show that the equilibrium temperature is governed by the surface atoms for a small lattice size (5 × 5) and by the bulk atoms for a large lattice size (7 × 7). Moreover, a change in the size of the lattice results in a variation of the order–disorder (or Curie) temperature, TO.D., and the surface equilibrium temperature, Teq, while only TO.D. changes in bulk.