One of the holy grails in chemistry is to develop methods to activate strong organic bonds with high selectivity, which would make the industrial production of chemicals more efficient. Ideally, such methods should involve cheap and environmentally benign metals, such as iron. Although nature uses enzymes with Fe-oxo active sites to selectively activate the strong bonds of many organic molecules, including the C-H of methane, developing and investigating synthetic mimics is challenging due to the high reactivity of high-valent Fe-oxo complexes. Researchers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Southern Denmark have reported the generation of a novel biomimetic non-heme complex ion in the gas-phase (see figure), in which the highly reactive Fe~(IV)=0 unit is supported by a tetradentate ligand that ensures a high-spin electronic state (Donald W.A., McKenzie C.J, O'Hair R.A.J. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 8379-83).
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