Ground state changes of (R,R’)-N,N’-bis(3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylidene)-1,2-cyclohexane-diamino Co(II), following coordination of various pyridyl substrate has been examined by CW EPR, pulsed relaxation measurements and DFT. The solution-based Co(II) complex possesses a low spin (LS) state urn:x-wiley:14341948:media:ejic202101071:ejic202101071-math-0001 (with g-values of 1.96, 1.895, 3.14). Upon coordination of the pyridyl substrate, the resulting bound adduct reveals a distribution of LS ‘base-on’ species, possessing a urn:x-wiley:14341948:media:ejic202101071:ejic202101071-math-0002 electronic ground state (with g-values of 2.008, 2.2145, 2.46) and a high spin (HS) species (with geff = 4.6). DFT indicated that the energy gap between the LS and HS state is dramatically lowered (ΔE < 25 kJmol−1) following substrate coordination. DFT suggests the main geometrical difference between the LS and HS systems is the severe puckering of the N2O2 ligand backbone. The results revealed a tentative dependency on the pKa−H of the substrates for the spin distribution where, in most cases, the higher pKa−H substrate values favoured the HS species
