Rate Enhancement and Enantioselectivity of the Jacobsen-Katsuki Epoxidation: The Significance of the Sixth Coordination Site.

New light on the origin of the high enantioselectivities achieved in the Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation is shed by the results of density functional calculations. Axial ligation to the metal center not only enhances the epoxidation rate, but in addition leads to highly nonplanar, bent conformations of the active catalyst.

Enhanced reactivity of 2-rhodaoxetanes through a labile acetonitrile ligand.

New cationic, square-planar, ethene complexes [(Rbpa)RhI(C2H4)]+ [2a]--[2c]+ (Rbpa = N-alkyl-N,N-di(2-pyridylmethyl)amine; [2a]+: alkyl =R=Me; [2b]+: R = Bu; [2c]+: R = Bz) have been selectively oxygenated in acetonitrile by aqueous hydrogen peroxide to 2-rhoda(III)oxetanes with a labile acetonitrile ligand, [(Rbpa)RhIII(kappa2-C,O-CH2CH2O-)(MeCN)]+, [3a]+-[3c]+. The rate of elimination of acetaldehyde from [(Rbpa)RhIII(kappa2-C,O-CH2CH2O-)(MeCN)]+ increases in the order R = Me< R = Bu< R = Bz. Elimination of acetaldehyde from [(Bzbpa)RhIII(kappa2-C,O-CH2CH2O)(MeCN)]+ [3c]+, in the presence of ethene results in regeneration of ethene complex [(Bzbpa)RhI(C2H4)]+ [2c]+, and closes a catalytic cycle.

Probing the reactivity of oxomanganese-salen complexes: an electrospray tandem mass spectrometric study of highly reactive intermediates.

Electrospray ionization in combination with tandem mass spectrometric techniques has been employed to study the formation of oxomanganese-salen complexes upon oxidation of [Mn(III)(salen)]+ cations as well as the properties and reactions of the oxidized species in the gas phase. Two species could be characterized as the principal oxidation products: the oxomanganese(v) complex, [Mn=O(salen)]+, which is the actual oxygen-transfer agent in epoxidation reactions, and the dinuclear, mu-oxo bridged [L(salen)Mn-O-Mn(salen)L]2+ with two terminal ligands L; the latter acts as a reservoir species. The effects of various substituents in the 5- and 5'-positions, respectively, of the salen ligand on the reactivity of the epoxidation catalyst were determined quantitatively from CID (collision-induced dissociation) experiments and B3LYP density functional calculations.