Transition metal peroxides reactivity

In the earlier volume of this book, the chapter dedicated to transition metal peroxides, written by Mimoun , gave a detailed description of the features of the identified peroxo species and a survey of their reactivity toward hydrocarbons. Here we begin from the point where Mimoun ended, thus we shall analyze the achievements made in the field in the last 20 years. In the first part of our chapter we shall review the newest species identified and characterized as an example we shall discuss in detail an important breakthrough, made more than ten years ago by Herrmann and coworkers who identified mono- and di-peroxo derivatives of methyl-trioxorhenium. With this catalyst, as we shall see in detail later on in the chapter, several remarkable oxidative processes have been developed. Attention will be paid to peroxy and hydroperoxide derivatives, very nnconunon species in 1982. Interesting aspects of the speciation of peroxo and peroxy complexes in solntion, made with the aid of spectroscopic and spectrometric techniqnes, will be also considered. The mechanistic aspects of the metal catalyzed oxidations with peroxides will be only shortly reviewed, with particular attention to some achievements obtained mainly with theoretical calculations. Indeed, for quite a long time there was an active debate in the literature regarding the possible mechanisms operating in particular with nucleophilic substrates. This central theme has been already very well described and discussed, so interested readers are referred to published reviews and book chapters . 

The second part of the chapter will be dedicated to the reactivity of transition metal peroxides, either isolated or formed in solution in catalytic processes, toward several classes of substrates. Hopefully this survey, where particular emphasis is placed on the selectivity aspects of these reactions, will present to the readers the potential of metal catalyzed oxidations with peroxides and highlight the perspective for researchers in the field. 

Transition metal peroxides, particularly peroxo (2), alkylperoxo (7) and hydroperoxo (8) complexes, are extremely important reactive intermediates in catalytic oxidations involving molecular oxygen, hydrogen peroxide and alkyl hydroperoxides as the oxygen source. Representative peroxo complexes are listed in Table 3, and alkylperoxo and hydroperoxo complexes are listed in Table 4 together with their reactivities. 

Chemical Properties. Higher a-olefins are exceedingly reactive because their double bond provides the reactive site for catalytic activation as well as numerous radical and ionic reactions. These olefins also participate in additional reactions, such as oxidations, hydrogenation, double-bond isomerization, complex formation with transition-metal derivatives, polymerization, and copolymerization with other olefins in the presence of Ziegler-Natta, metallocene, and cationic catalysts. All olefins readily form peroxides by exposure to air. 

For the mechanism of azolide hydrolysis under specific conditions like, for example, in micelles,[24] in the presence of cycloamyloses,[25] or transition metals,[26] see the references noted and the literature cited therein. Thorough investigation of the hydrolysis of azolides is certainly important for studying the reactivity of those compounds in chemical and biochemical systems.[27] On the other hand, from the point of view of synthetic chemistry, interest is centred instead on die potential for chemical transformations e.g., alcoholysis to esters, aminolysis to amides or peptides, acylation of carboxylic acids to anhydrides and of peroxides to peroxycarboxylic acids, as well as certain C-acylations and a variety of other preparative applications. 

Compounds and complexes of the early transition metals are oxophilic because the low d-electron count invites the stabilization of metal-oxo bonds by 7T-bond formation. To a substantial extent, their reactivity is typical of complexes of metals other than rhenium. That is particularly the case insofar as activation of hydrogen peroxide is concerned. Catalysis by d° metals - not only Revn, but also CrVI, WVI, MoVI, Vv, ZrIV and HfIV - has been noted. The parent forms of these compounds have at least one oxo group. Again the issue is the coordination of the oxygen donating substrate, HOOH, to the metal, usually by condensation ... 

Chromylchloride, Cr02Cl2, the main subject of the publication which led to the original discussion about the mechanism [12], shows a very different reactivity compared to the other transition metal oxides discussed above. Even in the absence of peroxides, it yields epoxides rather than diols in a complex mixture of products, which also contains cis-chlorohydrine and vicinal dichlorides. Many different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the great variety of products observed, but none of the proposed intermediates could be identified. Stairs et al. have proposed a direct interaction of the alkene with one oxygen atom of chromylchloride [63-65], while Sharpless proposed a chromaoxetane [12] formed via a [2+2] pathway. 

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