Probing Hydrogen Bonding Interactions to Iron‐Oxido/Hydroxido Units by 57 Fe Nuclear Resonance Vibrational Spectroscopy

Abstract

Hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) have been shown to modulate the chemical reactivities of iron centers in iron-containing dioxygen-activating enzymes and model complexes. However, few examples are available that investigate how systematic changes in intramolecular H-bonds within the secondary coordination sphere influence specific properties of iron intermediates, such as iron-oxido/hydroxido species. Here, we used 57Fe nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy (NRVS) to probe the Fe-O/OH vibrations in a series of FeIII-hydroxido and FeIV/III-oxido complexes with varying H-bonding networks but having similar trigonal bipyramidal primary coordination spheres. The data show that even subtle changes in the H-bonds to the Fe-O/OH units result in significant changes in their vibrational frequencies, thus demonstrating the utility of NRVS in studying the effect of the secondary coordination sphere to the reactivities of iron complexes.