초록/요약

Introduction of Bronsted acids into biomimetic nonheme reactions promotes the oxidative ability of metal-oxygen complexes significantly. However, the molecular machinery of the promoted effects is missing. Herein, a comprehensive investigation of styrene oxidation by a cobalt(III)-iodosylbenzene complex, [(TQA)-CoIII(OIPh)(OH)]2+ (1, TQA = tris(2-quinolylmethyl)amine), in the presence and absence of triflic acid (HOTf) was performed using density functional theory calculations. Results revealed for the first time that there is a low-barrier hydrogen bond (LBHB) between HOTf and the hydroxyl ligand of 1, which forms two valence-resonance structures [(TQA)CoIII(OIPh)(HO---HOTf)]2+ (1LBHB) and [(TQA)CoIII(OIPh)(H2O--OTf-)]2+ (1 ' LBHB). Due to the oxo-wall, these complexes (1LBHB and 1 ' LBHB) cannot convert to high-valent cobalt-oxyl species. Instead, styrene oxidation by these oxidants (1LBHB and 1 ' LBHB) shows novel spin-state selectivity, i.e., on the ground closed-shell singlet state, styrene is oxidized to an epoxide, whereas on the excited triplet and quintet states, an aldehyde product, phenylacetaldehyde, is formed. The preferred pathway is styrene oxidation by 1 ' LBHB, which is initiated by a rate-limiting bond-formation-coupled electron transfer process with an energy barrier of 12.2 kcal mol-1. The nascent PhIO-styrene-radical-cation intermediate undergoes an intramolecular rearrangement to produce an aldehyde. The halogen bond between the OH-/H2O ligand and the iodine of PhIO modulates the activity of the cobalt-iodosylarene complexes 1LBHB and 1 ' LBHB. These new mechanistic findings enrich our knowledge of nonheme chemistry and hypervalent iodine chemistry and will play a positive role in the rational design of new catalysts.