Iron Chemistry of a Pentadentate Ligand That Generates a Metastable Fe(III)-OOH Intermediate.

In an effort to gain more insight into the factors controlling the formation of low-spin non-heme Fe(III)-peroxo intermediates in oxidation catalysis, such as activated bleomycin, we have synthesized a series of iron complexes based on the pentadentate ligand N4Py (N4Py = N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-N-(bis-2-pyridylmethyl)amine). The following complexes have been prepared: [(N4Py)Fe(II)(CH(3)CN)](ClO(4))(2) (1), [(N4Py)Fe(II)Cl](ClO(4)) (2), [(N4Py)Fe(III)OMe](ClO(4))(2) (3), and [(N4Py)(2)Fe(2)O](ClO(4))(4) (4). Complexes 1 and 2 have low- and high-spin Fe(II) centers, respectively, whereas 3 is an Fe(III) complex that undergoes a temperature-dependent spin transition.