Selective catalytic 2e−-oxidation of organic substrates by an FeII complex having an N-heterocyclic carbene ligand in water†
Abstract
An FeII complex, 1, having a pentadentate ligand with an NHC moiety catalyzes substrate oxidation to afford 2e−-oxidized products with high selectivity by suppression of overoxidation in water. A Bell–Evance–Polanyi plot for the substrate oxidation catalyzed by 1 exhibited an inflection point around 86 kcal mol−1, indicating strong C–H abstraction ability of the reactive species derived from 1.
- This article is part of the themed collections: Chemical Communications HOT Articles and Bioinspired metal complexes for chemical transformations and catalysis