Non-Kramers ENDOR and ESEEM of the S = 2 Ferrous Ion of [Fe(II)EDTA]

We report here the first non-Kramers (NK) ESEEM and ENDOR study of a mononuclear NK center, presenting extensive parallel-mode ESEEM and ENDOR measurements on the S_t = 2 ferrous center of Fe(II)ethylenediamine-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetato]²⁻; Fe(II)EDTA)]²⁻. The results disclose an anomalous equivalence of the experimental patterns produced by the two techniques. A simple theoretical treatment of the frequency-domain patterns expected for NK-ESEEM and NK-ENDOR rationalizes this correspondence and further suggests that the very observation of NK-ENDOR is the result of an unprecedentedly large hyperfine enhancement effect. The mixed nitrogen–carboxylato oxygen coordination of Fe(II)EDTA]²⁻ models that of the protein-bound diiron centers, although with a higher coordination number. Analysis of the NK-ESEEM measurements yields the quadrupole parameters for the ¹⁴N ligands of Fe(II)EDTA]²⁻, K = 1.16(1) MHz, 0 ≤ η ≤ 0.05, and the analysis indicates that the electronic zero-field splitting tetragonal axis lies along the N–N direction.