Title: iron-sulfur cluster
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - iron-sulfur cluster
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.IT06779
Status: current

Definition
A unit comprising two or more iron atoms and bridging sulfur ligands in an iron-sulfur protein. The recommended designation of a cluster consists of the iron and sulfur content, in square brackets, for example, $\ce{[2\! Fe-2\! S]}$, $\ce{[3\! Fe-4\! S]}$. The possible oxidation levels are indicated by the net charge excluding the ligands, for example $\ce{[4\! Fe-4\! S]^{2+}}$; $\ce{[4\! Fe-4\! S]^{+}}$ or ($\ce{[4\! Fe-4\! S]^{2+;1+}}$) cluster.

Related Terms
- bridging: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/B00741
- cluster: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/CT06769
- iron-sulfur protein: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/IT06780
- ligands: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/L03518
- oxidation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/O04362

Source
- PAC, 1997, 69, 1251. 'Glossary of terms used in bioinorganic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1997)' on page 1281 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199769061251)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/IT06779/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/IT06779/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/IT06779/xml

Citation: Citation: 'iron-sulfur cluster' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.IT06779
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2025-11-01T02:52:56+00:00