How does the Fe+-mediated demethanation of CH3OCH3 occurs? A density functional theoretical study

The demethanation of DME by iron can take place on both the quartet and sextet PESs, and along the energetically preferable quartet pathway, the demethanation reaction proceeds through C-O activation rather than the methyl C-H activation; while along the sextet PES, both the C-O and C-H activation could result in the demethanation through relative higher energy barriers.