Calix[4]pyrrole Schiff base macrocycles. Novel binucleating ligands for mu-oxo iron complexes

New bimetallic mu-oxo diferric complexes of several previously reported calix4]pyrrole Schiff base macrocycles are described. The synthesis of a new member of this class of macrocycles is also reported; it was prepared via an acid-catalyzed condensation between 1,9-bisformyl-5,5-dipropyldipyrromethane and o-phenylenediamine. Reactions of the free base macrocycles or their bis-HCl salts with Fe(II) mesitylene, followed by air oxidation, gave the binuclear mu-oxo bis-Fe(III) compounds 6-10 in moderate yield. X-ray crystallography data reveal two different coordination environments for the Fe-O-Fe subunit in 6-10 that it is suggested can be controlled by altering the reaction conditions. Structural properties of these metalated pyrrolic macrocycles are also compared to those of mu-oxo diferric porphyrins and mu-oxo diferric texaphyrin. Complexes 6-10 exhibit two distinct types of M-N bonds that are similar in length to the bonds observed in metallotexaphyrin complexes. However, the electronics of the present systems are very different from those of texaphyrins and porphyrins in that no delocalized bonding patterns are observed within the ligands as a whole.