The Chem. Sci. journal features on its front cover of the November 2025 issue the research article “Mimicking sMMOH chemistry: trapping the Sc3+-bound nonheme FeIII–O–O–FeIII adduct prior to its conversion into an FeIV2(m-O)2 core” by Prof Marcel Swart in collaboration with Prof. Lawrence Que (University of Minnesota).
Di-iron systems that activate O2 to form high-valent, oxo-bridged FeIV2 or FeIIIFeIV products are of great interest to bio-inorganic chemists due to their relevance to the chemistry of soluble methane mono-oxygenase (sMMOH), which incorporates both atoms of O2 gas into a diiron(IV) complex with an Fe2O2 diamond core. In this study, the [FeIII2(Me3NTB)2(m-O)(m-O 2)]2+ adduct (Me3NTB = tris((1-methyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazole-2-yl)methyl)amine) reacts with two Sc3+ to break the O–O bond that in turn forms the target FeIV(m-O)2FeIV product. This study provides the first evidence that a Lewis acid can interact directly with a diferric-peroxo complex to initiate O–O bond cleavage, as evidenced via vibrational and X-ray absorption spectroscopy.
The corresponding paper was published recently:
Patrick M. Crossland, Bittu Chandra, Saikat Banerjee, Chase S. Abelson, Yisong Guo, Marcel Swart, Lawrence Que
Mimicking sMMOH chemistry: trapping the Sc3+ -bound nonheme FeIII –O–O–FeIII adduct prior to its conversion into an FeIV 2 (m-O)2 core
Chem. Sci., 2025, 16, 19608-19613
DOI: 10.1039/d5sc05667e
Girona, November 19th, 2025
For more info: ges.iqcc@udg.edu