Catechols, redox chemistry

Redox chemistry of vanadium-catechol systems is complicated References 256, 497 and 499-508 discuss this subject in detail. In complexes, the metal centre may be in the +5, +4, +3 (and +2) formal oxidation state and quinones complex in three localized electronic forms ... 

The resolution of tris(catecholato)chromate(III) has been achieved by crystallization with L-[Co(en)3]3+ the diastereomeric salt isolated contained the L-[Cr(cat)3]3 ion.793 Comparison of the properties of this anion with the chromium(III) enterobactin complex suggested that the natural product stereospeeifically forms the L-cis complex with chromium(III) (190). The tris(catecholate) complex K3[Cr(Cat)3]-5H20 crystallizes in space group C2/c with a = 20.796, 6 = 15.847 and c = 12.273 A and jS = 91.84° the chelate rings are planar.794 Electrochemical and spectroscopic studies of this complex have also been undertaken.795 Recent molecular orbital calculations796 on quinone complexes are consistent with the ligand-centred redox chemistry generally proposed for these systems.788... 

Catechols (and pyrogallols) readily reduce vanadium(V) to vanadium(IV) and, in some instances, further to vanadium(III). In the context of tunichromes as the presumed reducing agents in ascidians, the redox chemistry of catecholatovanadium complexes has been investigated to some extent. Results on reduction potentials for the and... 

In an analogous fashion to catechols and hydroquinones, ortho- and para-alkylphenols undergo two-electron tt oxidation to form quinone-methides. Quinone-methides possess a significantly reduced propensity for redox chemistry than corresponding quinones and are therefore much more reactive... 

The contrast between the electrochemical method and the method in the literature is very striking in one particular case, namely the formation of the tin(II) compounds by the electrochemical oxidation of the metal in solutions of 1,2-aromatic diols in acetonitrile (R(OH)2 = catechol, 2,3-dihydroxynaphthalene, Br4C5(OH)2, 2,2 -dihydroxybiphenyl). The room temperature, high yield, electrochemical synthesis of Sn(02R) compounds is a great improvement over the high temperature methods used in the earlier syntheses of such compounds [64]. The ready accessibility of the Sn(02R) materials lead to a study of their redox reactions, and their coordination chemistry. Not surprisingly, the direct synthesis of Pb(02R), and its redox chemistry, follow from the tin(II) system [65]. In each case the Ep value of 0.5 mol F can be understood by the sequence... 

Considerable effort has been expended in studies of the interaction of metal ions with catechols with a view to understanding oxygenase activity. In aprotic media, the electrochemical properties of substituted catechols have been examined. Reactions of 3,5-di-tert-butyl-o-quinone with manganese(II) result in stable tris-Mn(IV) or bis-Mn(III) complexes of the corresponding catecholate dianion, Bu C , depending on whether the initial ratio of reactants is 1 3 or 1 2. This flexible redox chemistry may be important for redox catalysis. The O2 oxidation of the iron-catechol complex [Fe(salen)(Bu2CH)] has also been examined in aprotic media. 

The close electrochemical relationship of the simple quinones, (2) and (3), with hydroquinone (1,4-benzenediol) (4) and catechol (1,2-benzenediol) (5), respectively, has proven useful in ways extending beyond their offering an attractive synthetic route. Photographic developers and dye syntheses often involve (4) or its derivatives (10). Biochemists have found much interest in the interaction of mercaptans and amino acids with various compounds related to (3). The reversible redox couple formed in many such examples and the frequendy observed quinonoid chemistry make it difficult to avoid a discussion of the aromatic reduction products of quinones (see Hydroquinone, resorcinol, and catechol). 

The chemistry of the transition metals including chromium(III) with these ligands has been the subject of a recent and extensive review,788 with references to the early literature. The close relationship between the catechol (180), semiquinone (181) and quinone (182) complexes may be appreciated by considering the redox equation below (equation 44). 789 The formal reduction potentials for the chromium(III) complexes (183-186 equation 45) are +0.03, -0.47 and -0.89 V (vs. SCE in acetonitrile) respectively. 

Only a handful of pseudotetrahedral or octahedral oxosulfido-Mo(VI) and -Mo(V) complexes are known, and their chemistry is described in Section 11. Mononuclear sulfido-Mo(V) complexes are unstable due to their susceptibility to redox, polynucleation, and hydrolysis reactions. Trispyrazolylborate derivatives such as sfructuraUy characterized Tp Mo SX2 (X = Cl, OPh derivative X2 = bdt, catecholate) are most commonly encountered. The Tp complexes exhibit short Mo=S bonds (ca. 2.13 A), intense S(ls)- - n (Mo=S) XAS transitions characteristic of terminal thio ligands, and EPR iso see g-Factor) values substantially lower than their 0x0 analogues. ... 

On the basis of their redox thermodynamics and reaction chemistry with 02"- in aprotic media, ascorbic acid S and some catechols may be subject to an (O2 -)-catalyzed auto-oxidation to dehydroascorbic acid and o-quinones, respectively. 

Several cerium(IV) complexes of various bidentate and tetradentate hydroxypyrodinonate (HOPO) complexes have been studied as model compounds for plutonium(IV) complexes (Xu et al., 2000). Bidentate HOPO monoanions are isolelectronic with catecholate dianions and they display a similar complex formation behavior towards cerium(IV) ions. However, HOPO ligands are more acidic and form stable complexes with cerium(IV) at lower pH values than catechol. The tetradentate ligands form more stable complexes than the corresponding bidentate ligands. New types of chelators for cerium(IV) and pluto-nium(IV) are the 2,3-dihydroxyterephthalamides (Gramer and Raymond, 2004 Xu et al., 2004). Some authors have made comparisons between the coordination chemistry and the redox behavior of cerium and berkelium (Lebedev et al., 1975 Milyukova et al., 1980 Yakovlev et al., 1982). 

---