Cuprous complexes and dioxygen. VIII. Steric factors controlling one- or two-electron reduction of O2 by cuprous complexes with substituted imidazoles

In aqueous acetonitrile (AN), Cu (I) forms the complexes Cu(AN)L⁺ and CuL with a series of substituted imidazoles (L). Stability constants logK of Cu(AN)⁺ + L ? Cu(AN)L⁺ and logβ₂ were near 5 and 12, resp., log units for all ligands. The rate of autoxidation is described by ?dO₂]/dt=CuL]²O₂](k_a/(1+k_bCuL]) + (k_cL]+k_d)/(CuL] + k_eCu])), implying competition between one- or two-electron reduction of O₂. The value of k_c decreases from 5500M ^?2S ^?1 for unsubstituted imidazole to about 40M ^?2S ^?1 for 2-methylimidazole or 1,2-dimethyl-imidazole and essentially zero for the corresponding 2-ethyl-derivatives. On the other hand, k_a and k_b are much less influenced by the nature of the ligands, all values being near 5 · 10⁴M ^?2S ^?1 and 10³M ^?1, respectively, for the complexes with the last four bases. Thus rather subtle sterical changes may strongly influence the relative importance of different pathways in the reduction of dioxygen by cuprous complexes.