Electronic structure of some substituted iron(II) porphyrins. Are they intermediate or high spin?

The electronic structure of some substituted, four-coordinate iron(II) porphyrins has been investigated with DFT methods. These systems include iron tetraphenylporphine (FeTPP), iron octamethyltetrabenzporphine (FeOTBP), iron tetra(alpha,alpha,alpha,alpha-orthopivalamide)phenylporphine (FeTpivPP, also called "picket fence" porphyrin), halogenated iron porphyrins (FeTPPXn, X = F, Cl; n = 20, 28), and iron octaethylporphine (FeOEP). A number of density functionals were used in the calculations. Different from the popular, intermediate-spin FeTPP, the ground states of FeOTBP, FeTPPCl28, and FeTPPF20 beta Cl-8 are predicted to be high spin. The calculated result for FeOTBP is in agreement with the early experimental measurement, thereby changing the previous conclusion drawn from the calculations with only the BP functional (J. Chem. Phys. 2002, 116, 3635). But FeTpivPP might have an intermediate-spin ground state, a conclusion that is different from the "experimental" one. With a notably expanded Fe-N bond length, FeOEP might exist as an admixed-spin (S = 1, 2) state. We also calculated the electron affinities (EAs) for the various iron porphyrins and compared them to experiment. On the basis of the calculated trends in the EAs and in the orbital energies, the experimental EAs for FeTpivPP, FeTPPF20, and FeTPPCl28 may be too small by 0.4-0.5 eV.