Bioinspired Five‐Coordinate Iron(III) Complexes for Stabilization of Phenoxyl Radicals

Abstract

Give me five! Two five-coordinate complexes of iron with geometries that are based on those found in redox-versatile enzymes have been synthesized. The phenolate-rich, pentadentate N2O3 phenylene–diamine/triphenolate ligands confer a low local symmetry on the complex so that only subtle modifications in the structure of the ligands are sufficient to completely change the sequence in which the metal and the ligands are oxidized (see scheme).