Pushing the photodelivery of nitric oxide to the visible: are {FeNO}7 complexes good candidates?Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. CCDC 1565106. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c7dt03142d

Photodelivery of NO requires stable compounds which can be made reactive by irradiation with (visible) light. Traditional {MNO} 6 complexes require a substantial ligand design to shift their absorption spectra to the appropriate region of the electromagnetic spectrum. [Fe((CH 2 Py 2 ) 2 Me[9]aneN 3 )(NO)](BF 4 ) 2 is a new {FeNO} 7 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 ( NO = 0.52 mol einstein −1 ), suggesting that {FeNO} 7 compounds can be in fact suitable compounds for therapeutic NO-photorelease. The photoactivity displayed by the newly prepared [Fe((CH 2 Py 2 ) 2 Me[9]aneN 3 )(NO)](BF 4 ) 2 suggests that {FeNO} 7 octahedral coordination compounds may be employed for controlled NO-photorelease.