2015): Kinetic and mechanistic studies of the reactivity of iron(IV) TAMLs towards organic sulfides in water: Resolving a fast catalysis versus slower single turnover reactivity dilemma, Journal of Coordination Chemistry, Dedicated to Prof. Rudi van Eldik on the occasion of his 70 th birthday. TAML complex (1) is oxidized by H 2 O 2 or t BuOOH in water at pH < 10 into the corresponding iron(IV) μ-oxo-bridged dimer 2, which oxidizes readily ring-substituted thioanisoles p-XC 6 H 4 SMe (X = H, MeO, Me, Cl, CN) into the corresponding sulfoxides with regeneration of 1. The oxidation studied under pseudo-first-order conditions by the stopped-flow technique by monitoring the fading of the 420 nm band of 2 follows hyperbolic kinetics according to the rate law k obs = ab[p-XC 6 H 4 SMe]/(1 + b[p-XC 6 H 4 SMe]) at pH 8 and 25 °C. Parameters a, b and ab all decrease for electron-poorer thioanisoles and the Hammett value ρ ~ 1 has been found for ab, which can be associated with the second order rate constants for oxidation of thioanisoles by 2. The kinetics of oxidation of p-NO 2 C 6 H 4 SMe by H 2 O 2 catalyzed by 1 has been studied under steady-state conditions. Covering the concentration of 1 in a 100-fold range has revealed that though first order kinetics in 1 is observed at low catalyst concentrations (below 10 -6 M), there is a significant negative deviation from linearity at [1] > 10 -6 M. The latter was rationalized by the equilibrium between the monomeric and dimeric Fe IV species 2 M ⇌ M-M (K d ), both being able to oxidize p-NO 2 C 6 H 4 SMe with rate constants k m and k d which were found to be (13±1)×10 4 and (0.32±0.01)×10 4 M -1 s -1 , respectively. The difference in the rate constants is the key for resolving Downloaded by [New York University] at 23:15 06 July 2015 2 the dilemma of faster catalysis versus slower single turnover reactivity of TAML activators in water.