The presence of such a plateau region is unusual and, to the best of our knowledge, new for iron- The energy needed to cleave the C-H bond at the MO site (55 kJ/mol at the HSE06 level of theory) is almost one order of magnitude lower than the energy barrier in the gas phase (Table ), nicely showcasing the need for a catalyst. Also, the standard industrial route via syngas already exhibits a distinct thermodynamic penalty compared to the direct catalytic route, even without considering additional practical issues associated with high temperature and pressure.