Fe(acac)3 is an octahedral complex with six equivalent Fe-O bonds with bond distances of about 2.00 Å. The regular geometry is consistent with a high-spin Fe3+ core. As the metal orbitals are all evenly occupied the complex is not subject to Jahn-Teller distortions and thus adopts a D3 molecular symmetry. In contrast, the related metal acetylacetonate Mn(acac)3 adopts a more distorted octahedral structure. The 5 unpaired d-electrons also result in the complex being paramagnetic, with a magnetic moment of 5.90 μB.
