Ossidazione di legami C-H catalizzata da complessi non-eme imminici del Ferro

Nonheme iron complexes are emerging as promising tools in the field of C-H bond activation. During the last decade several ligands have been synthesized and the catalytical activity of the corresponding iron complexes in aliphatic C-H oxidation was tested.[1] It was shown that ligand architecture have a great impact on catalyst’s activity and selectivity, with the more elaborated ligands usually performing better than the simple ones. However, this feature often leads to expensive and difficult to obtain ligands, thus hampering the diffusion of this synthetic methodology.[2] In this context, we prepared a simple nonheme iron complex (3) assembled directly in the reaction vessel from cheap and commercially available reagents (Figure 1). Complex 3 is formed immediately and quantitatively and shows good activity in C-H bond oxidation, at least comparable to those reported in literature for other Fe(II) complexes, albeit with a simpler structure and at catalyst loading as low as 1%.[3] The results of some hydrocarbon oxidations together with the full characterization of complex 3 will be presented. Some preliminary studies on the catalytic activity displayed by other imine-based nonheme iron complexes will be also disclosed. [1] L. Que, Jr. and W. B. Tolman Nature, 2008, 455, 333-340. [2] M. Cantà, D. Font, L. Gómez, X. Ribas, M. Costas Adv. Synth. Cat., 2014, 356, 818-830. [3] G. Olivo, G. Arancio, L. Mandolini, O. Lanzalunga, S. Di Stefano, submitted.