Gaseous iron(II) and iron(III) complexes with BINOLate ligands

Electrospray ionization (ESI) of dilute solutions of 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) and iron(II) or iron(III) sulfate in methanol/water allows the generation of monocationic complexes of iron and deprotonated BINOL ligands with additional methanol molecules in the coordination sphere, and the types of complexes formed can be controlled by the valence of the iron precursors used in ESI. Thus, iron(II) sulfate leads to [(BINOLate)Fe(CH3OH)(n)](+) complexes (n = 0-3), whereas usage of iron(III) sulfate allows the generation of [(BINOLdiate)-Fe(CH3OH)(n)](+) cations (n = 0-2); here, BINOLate and BINOLdiate stand for singly and doubly deprotonated BINOL, respectively. Upon collision-induced dissociation, the mass-selected ions with n > 0 first lose the methanol ligands and then undergo characteristic fragmentations. Bare [(BINOLdiate)Fe](+), a formal iron(III) species, undergoes decarbonylation, which is known as a typical fragmentation of ionized phenols and phenolates either as free species or as the corresponding metal complexes. The bare [(BINOLate)Fe](+) cation, on the other hand, preferentially loses neutral FeOH to afford an organic C20HI2O+center dot cation radical, which most likely corresponds to ionized 1,1'-dinaphthofurane.