We report the resonan
ce Raman (RR) spe
ctra of iron
complexes
containing the Fe
2(
-O)
2 core.Frozen CH
3CN solutions of theFe
IIIFe
IV intermediate[Fe
2(
-O)
2L
2](ClO
4)
3(where L = TPA, 5-Me
3-TPA,5-Me
2-TPA, 5-MeTPA, 5-Et
3-TPA, or3-Me
3-TPA) show numerous resonan
ce-enhan
ced vibrations, andamongthese, an oxygen-isotope-sensitive vibration around 667
cm
-1 that shifts
ca. 30
cm
-1 when the samples areallowed to ex
change with
18OH
2, and whoseRaman shift does not vary with methyl substitution of theTPAligand. Spe
ctra of iron-isotope-substituted samples of[Fe
2(
-O)
2(L)
2](ClO
4)
3(
54Fe and
57Fe for L =TPA,and
54Fe and
58Fe for L =5-Me
3-TPA) show that this vibration is alsoiron-isotope-sensitive. These isotopi
cdata taken together strongly suggest that this vibration involvesmotion of the Fe
2(
-O)
2 core that isisolatedfrom motions of the ligand. A frozen CH
3CNsolution of the diiron(III)
complex[Fe
2(
-O)
2(6-Me
3-TPA)
2](ClO
4)
2 shows one intense resonan
ce-enhan
cedvibration at 692
cm
-1 that shifts -30
cm
-1 with
18Olabeling.Normal
coordinate analysis of theFe
2(
-O)
2 core in[Fe
2(
-O)
2(5-Me
3-TPA)
2](ClO
4)
3supports the assignmentof the Fermi doublet
centered around 666.2
cm
-1 as an A
1 vibration of this
core. Furthermore, we proposethat this unique feature found in the region between 650 and 700
cm
-1 is indi
cative of a diamond
corestru
ctureand is the Raman signature of an iron
cluster
containing this
core.