Iodosylarenes are an important class of oxygen atom transfer reagents in organic synthesis, and they are often used in conjunction with transition-metal-based catalysts. [1][2][3] These are most commonly iron [4][5][6][7] and manganese [8][9][10][11] porphyrin, Mn-corrole, [12] Mn-corrolazinato, [13,14] and Mn-salen complexes, [15] and even cytochrome P450. [16] Hypervalent metaloxo complexes that relay the oxygen atom from the iodosylarene donor to the substrate acceptor are most commonly invoked as the active oxidants in these catalytic mechanisms. Accordingly iodsosylarenes have been used in the preparation of hypervalent metal-oxo complexes. No metal-complexed iodosylarene has been structurally characterized in the solid state; however, the isolation of a reactive iodosylbenzene complex of Mn-porphyrin was reported nearly 30 years ago. [17] Oxygen atom transfer from iodosylarenes to LM n+ complexes give the corresponding LM (n+2)+ O species (or LC + M (n+1)+ O if the ligand is non-innocent, for example when L = porphyrin) [Equation (1), steps i + ii]. Occasionally, intervening transient species assigned to metal-iodosylarene adducts have been spectroscopically identified in these types of reactions. More or less unstable Mn V O porphyrin [8] and salen [13,18,19] systems, Cr V O, [20] [(porphC)Fe IV O] +[6, 7] systems, and [Fe IV O(tmc)] 2+[21] (tmc = tetramethylcyclam) have been accessed by oxygen atom transfer from iodosylbenzene to the appropriate Mn III , Cr III , Fe III , and Fe II precursors respectively. Recently, a novel Co IV O solution species was generated at À60 8C by the reaction of 2-(tert-butylsulfonyl)iodosylbenzene with [Co II (TMG 3 tren)(OTf)] + . [22] Nam et al. have demonstrated the back-reaction of the equilibrium ii in Equation (1) by formation of a spectrosopically detected species assigned to [(porph)Fe III (OIPh)] + from the reaction of [(porphC)Fe IV O] + with iodobenzene. [6]By using the monoanionic hexadentate ligand N,N,N'tris(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylendiamine-N'-acetate (tpena À ), we describe herein the structural characterization of a reactive high-spin seven-coordinate iron(III) complex, [(tpena)Fe-(OIC 6 H 5 )] 2+ (1), which contains an auxiliary iodosylbenzene ligand. Complex 1 is prepared by dissolving the oxo-bridged complex [(tpenaH)Fe(m-O)Fe(tpenaH)] 4+ (2) in acetonitrile to form [Fe III (tpena)] 2+ (3) [Equation (2)], which then reacts with iodosylbenzene to give 1 [Equation (3)]. Dehydration and oxo bridge cleavage of 2 seems particularly facilitated by tpena À by comparison to most other oxo-bridged diiron(III) species, which are typically more robust in solution. [23,24] The uncoordinated basic pyridyl groups may be playing an active role in this process. If protonated, as is found in the crystal structure (see below), a dehydration reaction is formally intramolecular. Thus solutions of 2 turn red within minutes owing to the formation of 3, which has been characterized by ESI-MS, UV/Vis, and ESR spectroscopy. [25] The crystal structure of the Co III analogue of 3 is ...