Transfer of Coordinated Dioxygen to Reactive Substrates

In fact, the oxidation of SO2 to SOJ is a reation which is common to most metal dioxygen complexes, cf. equations (33), (34), (35), (37), (38) and (39). Literature references are given in square brackets under the arrows for the respective reactions. 

Another reaction which has been widely studied is the oxidation of NO2 to NOJ by coordinated dioxygen, equation (33). In contrast to most metal dioxygen complexes. 

Under mild conditions in the absence of a catalyst, oxygen will not react with  

Consequently, the dioxygen molecule can be thou t of as undergoing activation toward this substrate by virtue of being coordinated to the metal. In like manner, many other small molecules are oxidized far more readily in the coordination sphere of a metal dioxygen complex than with molecular oxygen alone. 

The ruthenium complex, [RuCl(N0XPh3p)2(02)], reacts readily with both SO2 and CO, and interestingly in the latter case, coordinated NO is oxidized rather than CO, equation (35). 

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