Manganese(III) complexes stabilized with N-heterocyclic carbene ligands for alcohol oxidation catalysis.

The chemistry of N-heterocyclic carbenes with Earth-abundant manganese has largely focused on low-valent systems for reductive catalysis. Here, we have decorated imidazole- and triazole-derived carbenes with phenol substituents to access higher-valent Mn(III) complexes [Mn(,,)(acac)], where acac = acetylacetonato, and ,, = bis(phenolate)imidazolylidene (1) or bis(phenolate)triazolylidene (2). Both complexes catalyze the oxidation of alcohols in the presence of BuOOH as terminal oxidant.