CRC 1487: Iron, upgraded!
Iron is a versatile, ubiquitous, cheap and sustainable transition metal with unique properties and high reactivity. Changes in the local environment modulate the intrinsic properties. In most environments, a broad variety of oxidation and spin states is easily accessible. On one hand, this can result in unfavourable or undesirable properties, on the other hand a change in the environment can be used to improve the reactivity in a targeted manner.