Nuclear inelastic scattering spectroscopy of tris(acetylacetonate)iron(III); A vibrational probe via the iron atom

► Nuclear inelastic scattering (NIS) as Fe selective vibrational spectroscopy. ► Application of NIS to transition metal complex tris(acetylacetonate)Fe(III). ► We combine NIS with the infrared and Raman spectroscopies and DFT calculations. ► Complementarity amongst three vibrational spectroscopic techniques is shown. ► Molecular E modes are enhanced due to selective coupling to the lattice modes.