Iron L-edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Oxy-Picket Fence Porphyrin: Experimental Insight into Fe-O2 Bonding

摘要

The electronic structure of the Fe–O2 center in oxy-hemoglobin and oxy-myoglobin is a long-standing issue in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. Spectroscopic studies have been complicated by the highly delocalized nature of the porphyrin and calculations require interpretation of multi-determinant wavefunctions for a highly covalent metal site. Here, iron L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), interpreted using a valence bond configuration interaction (VBCI) multiplet model, is applied to directly probe the electronic structure of the iron in the biomimetic Fe–O2 heme complex [Fe(pfp)(1-MeIm)O2] (pfp = meso-tetra(α,α,α,α-o-pivalamidophenyl) porphyrin or TpivPP). This method allows separate estimates of σ-donor, π-donor, and π-acceptor interactions through ligand to metal charge transfer (LMCT) and metal to ligand charge transfer (MLCT) mixing pathways. The L-edge spectrum of [Fe(pfp)(1-MeIm)O2] is further compared to those of [Fe^II(pfp)(1-MeIm)2], [Fe^II(pfp)], and [Fe^III(tpp)(ImH)2]Cl (tpp = meso-tetraphenylporphyrin) which have Fe^II S = 0, Fe^II S = 1 and Fe^III S = 1/2 ground states, respectively. These serve as references for the three possible contributions to the ground state of oxy-pfp. The Fe–O2 pfp site is experimentally determined to have both significant σ-donation and a strong π-interaction of the O2 with the iron, with the latter having implications with respect to the spin polarization of the ground state.