A five-coordinate iron(III) porphyrin complex including a neutral axial pyridine N-oxide ligand.

While six-coordinate iron(III) porphyrin complexes with pyridine N-oxides as axial ligands have been studied as they exhibit rare spin-crossover behavior, studies of five-coordinate iron(III) porphyrin complexes including neutral axial ligands are rare. A five-coordinate pyridine N-oxide-5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrinate-iron(III) complex, namely (pyridine N-oxide-κO)(5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphinato-κ4N,N',N'',N''')iron(III) hexafluoroantimonate(V) dichloromethane disolvate, [Fe(C44H28N4)(C5H5NO)][SbF6]·2CH2Cl2, was isolated and its crystal structure determined in the space group P-1. The porphyrin core is moderately saddled and the Fe-O-N bond angle is 122.08 (13)°. The average Fe-N bond length is 2.03 Å and the Fe-ONC5H5 bond length is 1.9500 (14) Å. This complex provides a rare example of a five-coordinate iron(III) porphyrin complex that is coordinated to a neutral organic ligand through an O-monodentate binding mode.