A Novel Pentadentate Redox‐Active Ligand and Its Iron(III) Complexes: Electronic Structures and O2 Reactivity

A novel redox‐active ligand, H₄^Ph2SL^AP ( 1 ) which was designed to be potentially pentadentate with an O,N,S,N,O donor set is described. Treatment of 1 with two equivalents of potassium hydride gave access to octametallic precursor complex [H₂^Ph2SL^APK₂(thf)]₄ ( 2 ), which reacted with FeCl₃ to yield iron(III) complex [H₂^Ph2SL^APFeCl] ( 3 ). Employing Fe[N(SiMe₃)₂]₃ for a direct reaction with 1 led to ligand rearrangement through C?S bond cleavage and thiolate formation, finally yielding [HL^APFe] ( 5 ). Upon exposure to O₂, 3 and 5 are oxidized through formal hydrogen‐atom abstraction from the ligand NH units to form [^Ph2SL^SQFeCl] ( 4 ) and [L^SQFe] ( 6 ) featuring two or one coordinated iminosemiquinone moieties, respectively. Mössbauer measurements demonstrated that the iron centers remain in their +III oxidation states. Compounds 3 and 5 were tested with respect to their potential as models for the catechol dioxygenase. Thus, they were treated with 3,5‐di‐tert‐butyl‐catechol, triethylamine and O₂. It turned out that the iron–catecholate complexes react with O₂ in dichloromethane at ambient conditions through C?C bond cleavage mainly forming extradiol cleavage products. Intradiol products are only side products and quinone formation becomes negligible. This observation has been rationalized by a dissociation of two donor functions upon coordination of the catecholate.