High-Temperature Spin Crossover in Complexes of Iron(II) closo-Borates with 2,6-Bis(benzimidazol-2-yl)pyridine

New iron(II) complexes with 2,6-bis(benzimidazol-2-yl)pyridine (L) and closo -borate(2–) anions—[FeL 2 ][B 10 H 10 ] ⋅ 2H 2 O and [FeL 2 ][B 12 H 12 ] ⋅ H 2 O—have been synthesized. The complexes have been characterized by static magnetic susceptibility measurements, electronic (diffuse reflectance spectra), IR, and EXAFS spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction analysis. A study of the μ eff ( T ) dependence in the temperature range 80–500 K has shown that the complexes exhibit a high-temperature spin crossover 1 А 1 ⇔ 5 Т 2 .