Pushing the photodelivery of nitric oxide to the visible: are {FeNO} 7 complexes good candidates?

Photodelivery of NO requires stable compounds which can be made reactive by irradiation with (visible) light. Traditional {MNO} complexes require a substantial ligand design to shift their absorption spectra to the appropriate region of the electromagnetic spectrum. [Fe((CH Py ) Me[9]aneN )(NO)](BF ) is a new {FeNO} octahedral coordination compound, which is thermally and air-stable in solution. Illumination with a 450 nm light source induces significant photodetachment of the coordinated NO (ϕ = 0.52 mol einstein ), suggesting that {FeNO} compounds can be in fact suitable compounds for therapeutic NO-photorelease.