A highly water- and air-stable Fe(II) complex with the quinol-containing macrocyclic ligand H4 qp4 reacts with H2 O2 to yield Fe(III) complexes with less highly chelating forms of the ligand that have either one or two para-quinones. The reaction increases the T1 -weighted relaxivity over four-fold, enabling the complex to detect H2 O2 using clinical MRI technology. The iron-containing sensor differs from its recently characterized manganese analog, which also detects H2 O2 , in that it is the oxidation of the metal center, rather than the ligand, that primarily enhances the relaxivity.
Keywords: iron; magnetic resonance imaging; reactive oxygen species; redox; sensors.
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