Stoichiometric Formation of an Oxoiron(IV) Complex by a Soluble Methane Monooxygenase Type Activation of O2 at an Iron(II)-Cyclam Center

J Am Chem Soc. 2020 Apr 1;142(13):5924-5928. doi: 10.1021/jacs.9b13756. Epub 2020 Mar 18.

Abstract

In soluble methane monooxygenase enzymes (sMMO), dioxygen (O2) is activated at a diiron(II) center to form an oxodiiron(IV) intermediate Q that performs the challenging oxidation of methane to methanol. An analogous mechanism of O2 activation at mono- or dinuclear iron centers is rare in the synthetic chemistry. Herein, we report a mononuclear non-heme iron(II)-cyclam complex, 1-trans, that activates O2 to form the corresponding iron(IV)-oxo complex, 2-trans, via a mechanism reminiscent of the O2 activation process in sMMO. The conversion of 1-trans to 2-trans proceeds via the intermediate formation of an iron(III)-superoxide species 3, which could be trapped and spectroscopically characterized at -50 °C. Surprisingly, 3 is a stronger oxygen atom transfer (OAT) agent than 2-trans; 3 performs OAT to 1-trans or PPh3 to yield 2-trans quantitatively. Furthermore, 2-trans oxidizes the aromatic C-H bonds of 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol, which, together with the strong OAT ability of 3, represents new domains of oxoiron(IV) and superoxoiron(III) reactivities.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Heterocyclic Compounds / chemistry
  • Heterocyclic Compounds / metabolism*
  • Iron Compounds / chemistry
  • Iron Compounds / metabolism*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Oxygen / chemistry
  • Oxygen / metabolism*
  • Oxygenases / metabolism*
  • Superoxides / chemistry
  • Superoxides / metabolism

Substances

  • Heterocyclic Compounds
  • Iron Compounds
  • Superoxides
  • cyclam
  • Oxygenases
  • methane monooxygenase
  • Oxygen