Theoretical study of oxidation of cyclohexane diol to adipic anhydride by [Ru(IV)(O)(tpa)(H2O)]2+ complex (tpa ═ tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine)

The catalytic conversion of 1,2-cyclohexanediol to adipic anhydride by Ru(IV)O(tpa) (tpa ═ tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine) is discussed using density functional theory calculations. The whole reaction is divided into three steps: (1) formation of α-hydroxy cyclohexanone by dehydrogenation of cyclohexanediol, (2) formation of 1,2-cyclohexanedione by dehydrogenation of α-hydroxy cyclohexanone, and (3) formation of adipic anhydride by oxygenation of cyclohexanedione. In each step the two-electron oxidation is performed by Ru(IV)O(tpa) active species, which is reduced to bis-aqua Ru(II)(tpa) complex. The Ru(II) complex is reactivated using Ce(IV) and water as an oxygen source. There are two different pathways of the first two steps of the conversion depending on whether the direct H-atom abstraction occurs on a C-H bond or on its adjacent oxygen O-H. In the first step, the C-H (O-H) bond dissociation occurs in TS1 (TS2-1) with an activation barrier of 21.4 (21.6) kcal/mol, which is followed by abstraction of another hydrogen with the spin transition in both pathways. The second process also bifurcates into two reaction pathways. TS3 (TS4-1) is leading to dissociation of the C-H (O-H) bond, and the activation barrier of TS3 (TS4-1) is 20.2 (20.7) kcal/mol. In the third step, oxo ligand attack on the carbonyl carbon and hydrogen migration from the water ligand occur via TS5 with an activation barrier of 17.4 kcal/mol leading to a stable tetrahedral intermediate in a triplet state. However, the slightly higher energy singlet state of this tetrahedral intermediate is unstable; therefore, a spin crossover spontaneously transforms the tetrahedral intermediate into a dione complex by a hydrogen rebound and a C-C bond cleavage. Kinetic isotope effects (k(H)/k(D)) for the electronic processes of the C-H bond dissociations calculated to be 4.9-7.4 at 300 K are in good agreement with experiment values of 2.8-9.0.     

A theoretical study of alcohol oxidation by ferrate

The conversion of methanol to formaldehyde mediated by ferrate (FeO(4)2-), monoprotonated ferrate (HFeO4-), and diprotonated ferrate (H2FeO4) is discussed with the hybrid B3LYP density functional theory (DFT) method. Diprotonated ferrate is the best mediator for the activation of the O-H and C-H bonds of methanol via two entrance reaction channels: (1) an addition-elimination mechanism that involves coordination of methanol to diprotonated ferrate; (2) a direct abstraction mechanism that involves H atom abstraction from the O-H or C-H bond of methanol. Within the framework of the polarizable continuum model (PCM), the energetic profiles of these reaction mechanisms in aqueous solution are calculated and investigated. In the addition-elimination mechanism, the O-H and C-H bonds of ligating methanol are cleaved by an oxo or hydroxo ligand, and therefore the way to the formation of formaldehyde is branched into four reaction pathways. The most favorable reaction pathway in the addition-elimination mechanism is initiated by an O-H cleavage via a four-centered transition state that leads to intermediate containing an Fe-O bond, followed by a C-H cleavage via a five-centered transition state to lead to formaldehyde complex. In the direct abstraction mechanism, the oxidation reaction can be initiated by a direct H atom abstraction from either the O-H or C-H bond, and it is branched into three pathways for the formation of formaldehyde. The most favorable reaction pathway in the direct abstraction mechanism is initiated by C-H activation that leads to organometallic intermediate containing an Fe-C bond, followed by a concerted H atom transfer from the OH group of methanol to an oxo ligand of ferrate. The first steps in both mechanisms are all competitive in energy, but due to the significant energetical stability of the organometallic intermediate, the most likely initial reaction in methanol oxidation by ferrate is the direct C-H bond cleavage.     

A theoretical study on the mechanism of camphor hydroxylation by compound I of cytochrome p450

Mechanistic and energetic aspects for the conversion of camphor to 5-exo-hydroxycamphor by the compound I iron-oxo species of cytochrome P450 are discussed from B3LYP DFT calculations. This reaction occurs in a two-step manner along the lines that the oxygen rebound mechanism suggests. The activation energy for the first transition state of the H atom abstraction at the C5 atom of camphor is computed to be more than 20 kcal/mol. This H atom abstraction is the rate-determining step in this hydroxylation reaction, leading to a reaction intermediate that involves a carbon radical species and the iron-hydroxo species. The second transition state of the rebound step that connects the reaction intermediate and the product alcohol complex lies a few kcal/mol below that for the H atom abstraction on the doublet and quartet potential energy surfaces. This energetic feature allows the virtually barrierless recombination in both spin states, being consistent with experimentally observed high stereoselectivity and brief lifetimes of the reaction intermediate. The overall energetic profile of the catalytic mechanism of camphor hydroxylation particularly with respect to why the high activation energy for the H atom abstraction is accessible under physiological conditions is also considered and calculated. According to a proton source model involving Thr252, Asp251, and two solvent water molecules (Biochemistry 1998, 37, 9211), the energetics for the conversion of the iron-peroxo species to compound I is studied. A significant energy over 50 kcal/mol is released in the course of this dioxygen activation process. The energy released in this chemical process is an important driving force in alkane hydroxylation by cytochrome P450. This energy is used for the access to the high activation energy for the H atom abstraction.     

A theoretical study of reactivity and regioselectivity in the hydroxylation of adamantane by ferrate(VI)

The conversion of adamantane to adamantanols mediated by ferrate (FeO(4)(2)(-)), monoprotonated ferrate (HFeO(4)(-)), and diprotonated ferrate (H(2)FeO(4)) is discussed with the hybrid B3LYP density functional theory (DFT) method. Diprotonated ferrate is the best mediator for the activation of the C-H bonds of adamantane via two reaction pathways, in which 1-adamantanol is formed by the abstraction of a tertiary hydrogen atom (3 degrees ) and 2-adamantanol by the abstraction of a secondary hydrogen atom (2 degrees ). Each reaction pathway is initiated by a C-H bond cleavage via an H-atom abstraction that leads to a radical intermediate, followed by a C-O bond formation via an oxygen rebound step to lead to an adamantanol complex. The activation energies for the C-H cleavage step are 6.9 kcal/mol in the 1-adamantanol pathway and 8.4 kcal/mol in the 2-adamantanol pathway, respectively, at the B3LYP/6-311++G level of theory, whereas those of the second reaction step corresponding to the rebound step are relatively small. Thus, the rate-determining step in the two pathways is the C-H bond dissociation step, which is relevant to the regioselectivity for adamantane hydroxylation. The relative rate constant (3 degrees )/(2 degrees ) for the competing H-atom abstraction reactions is calculated to be 9.30 at 75 degrees C, which is fully consistent with an experimental value of 10.1.     

Vibrationally controlled chemistry: mode- and bond-selected reaction of CH3D with Cl

Selective vibrational excitation controls the competition between C-H and C-D bond cleavage in the reaction of CH(3)D with Cl, which forms either HCl + CH(2)D or DCl + CH(3). The reaction of CH(3)D molecules with the first overtone of the C-D stretch (2nu(2)) excited selectively breaks the C-D bond, producing CH(3) exclusively. In contrast, excitation of either the symmetric C-H stretch (nu(1)), the antisymmetric C-H stretch (nu(4)), or a combination of antisymmetric stretch and CH(3) umbrella bend (nu(4) + nu(3)) causes the reaction to cleave only a C-H bond to produce solely CH(2)D. Initial preparation of C-H stretching vibrations with different couplings to the reaction coordinate changes the rate of the H-atom abstraction reaction. Excitation of the symmetric C-H stretch (nu(1)) of CH(3)D accelerates the H-atom abstraction reaction 7 times more than excitation of the antisymmetric C-H stretch (nu(4)) even though the two lie within 80 cm(-1) of the same energy. Ab initio calculations and a simple theoretical model help identify the dynamics behind the observed mode selectivity.     

A valence bond modeling of trends in hydrogen abstraction barriers and transition states of hydroxylation reactions catalyzed by cytochrome P450 enzymes

The paper outlines the fundamental factors that govern the mechanisms of alkane hydroxylation by cytochrome P450 and the corresponding barrier heights during the hydrogen abstraction and radical rebound steps of the process. This is done by a combination of density functional theory calculations for 11 alkanes and valence bond (VB) modeling of the results. The energy profiles and transition states for the various steps are reconstructed using VB diagrams (Shaik, S. S. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1981, 103, 3692-3701. Shaik, S.; Shurki, A. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1999, 38, 586-625.) and the DFT barriers are reproduced by the VB model from raw data based on C-H bond energies. The model explains a variety of other features of P450 hydroxylations: (a) the nature of the polar effect during hydrogen abstraction, (b) the difference between the activation mechanisms leading to the Fe(IV) vs the Fe(III) electromers, (c) the difference between the gas phase and the enzymatic reaction, and (d) the dependence of the rebound barrier on the spin state. The VB mechanism shows that the active species of the enzyme performs a complex reaction that involves multiple bond making and breakage mechanisms by utilizing an intermediate VB structure that cuts through the high barrier of the principal transformation between reactants and products, thereby mediating the process at a low energy cost. The correlations derived in this paper create order and organize the data for a process of a complex and important enzyme. This treatment can be generalized to the reactivity patterns of nonheme systems and synthetic iron-oxo porphyrin reagents.     

Model studies of hydrogen atom addition and abstraction processes involving ortho-, meta-, and para-benzynes.

H-atom addition and abstraction processes involving ortho-, meta-, and para-benzyne have been investigated by multiconfigurational self-consistent field methods. The H(A) + H(B)...H(C) reaction (where r(BC) is adjusted to mimic the appropriate singlet-triplet energy gap) is shown to effectively model H-atom addition to benzyne. The doublet multiconfiguration wave functions are shown to mix the "singlet" and "triplet" valence bond structures of H(B)...H(C) along the reaction coordinate; however, the extent of mixing is dependent on the singlet-triplet energy gap (DeltaE(ST)) of the H(B)...H(C) diradical. Early in the reaction, the ground-state wave function is essentially the "singlet" VB function, yet it gains significant "triplet" VB character along the reaction coordinate that allows H(A)-H(B) bond formation. Conversely, the wave function of the first excited state is predominantly the "triplet" VB configuration early in the reaction coordinate, but gains "singlet" VB character when the H-atom is close to a radical center. As a result, the potential energy surface (PES) for H-atom addition to triplet H(B)...H(C) diradical is repulsive! The H3 model predicts, in agreement with the actual calculations on benzyne, that the singlet diradical electrons are not coupled strongly enough to give rise to an activation barrier associated with C-H bond formation. Moreover, this model predicts that the PES for H-atom addition to triplet benzyne will be characterized by a repulsive curve early in the reaction coordinate, followed by a potential avoided crossing with the (pi)1(sigma*)1 state of the phenyl radical. In contrast to H-atom addition, large activation barriers characterize the abstraction process in both the singlet ground state and first triplet state. In the ground state, this barrier results from the weakly avoided crossing of the dominant VB configurations in the ground-state singlet (S0) and first excited singlet (S1) because of the large energy gap between S0 and S1 early in the reaction coordinate. Because the S1 state is best described as the combination of the triplet X-H bond and the triplet H(B)...H(C) spin couplings, the activation barrier along the S0 abstraction PES will have much less dependence on the DeltaE(ST) of H(B)...H(C) than previously speculated. For similar reasons, the T1 potential surface is quite comparable to the S0 PES.     

The "somersault" mechanism for the p-450 hydroxylation of hydrocarbons. The intervention of transient inverted metastable hydroperoxides

A series of model theoretical calculations are described that suggest a new mechanism for the oxidation step in enzymatic cytochrome P450 hydroxylation of saturated hydrocarbons. A new class of metastable metal hydroperoxides is described that involves the rearrangement of the ground-state metal hydroperoxide to its inverted isomeric form with a hydroxyl radical hydrogen bonded to the metal oxide (MO-OH --> MO....HO). The activation energy for this somersault motion of the FeO-OH group is 20.3 kcal/mol for the P450 model porphyrin iron(III) hydroperoxide [Por(SH)Fe(III)-OOH(-)] to produce the isomeric ferryl oxygen hydrogen bonded to an *OH radical [Por(SH)Fe(III)-O....HO(-)]. This isomeric metastable hydroperoxide, the proposed primary oxidant in the P450 hydroxylation reaction, is calculated to be 17.8 kcal/mol higher in energy than the ground-state iron(III) hydroperoxide Cpd 0. The first step of the proposed mechanism for isobutane oxidation is abstraction of a hydrogen atom from the C-H bond of isobutane by the hydrogen-bonded hydroxyl radical to produce a water molecule strongly hydrogen bonded to anionic Cpd II. The hydroxylation step involves a concerted but nonsynchronous transfer of a hydrogen atom from this newly formed, bound, water molecule to the ferryl oxygen with a concomitant rebound of the incipient *OH radical to the carbon radical of isobutane to produce the C-O bond of the final product, tert-butyl alcohol. The TS for the oxygen rebound step is 2 kcal/mol lower in energy than the hydrogen abstraction TS (DeltaE() = 19.5 kcal/mol). The overall proposed new mechanism is consistent with a lot of the ancillary experimental data for this enzymatic hydroxylation reaction.     

Mechanism of benzene hydroxylation by high-valent bare Fe(IV)=O2+: explicit electronic structure analysis

The conversion of benzene to phenol by high-valent bare FeO(2+) was comprehensively explored using a density functional theory method. The conductor-like screen model (COSMO) was used to mimic the role of solvent effect with acetonitrile chosen as the solvent. Two radical mechanisms and one oxygen insertion mechanism were tested for this conversion. The first radical mechanism can also be named as the concerted mechanism in which the hydrogen-atom abstraction process is accomplished via a four-centered transition state. The second radical mechanism is initiated by a direct hydrogen-atom abstraction with a collinear C-H-O transition structure. It is actually the same as the well-accepted rebound mechanism for the C-H bond activation by heme and nonheme iron-oxo catalysts. The third is an oxygen insertion mechanism which is essentially an aromatic electrophilic attack leading to an arenium σ-complex intermediate. The formation of a precomplex with an η(4) coordinate environment in the first radical mechanism is energetically more favorable. However, the relatively lower activation energy barrier of the oxygen insertion mechanism compared to the radical ones makes it highly competitive if the Fe=O(2+) collides with benzene in the proper orientation. The detailed potential energy surfaces also indicate that the second radical mechanism, i.e., the benzene C-H bond activation through the rebound mechanism, is less favorable. This thorough theoretical study, especially the electronic structure analysis, may offer very important clues for understanding and studying C-H bond activation by iron-based catalysts and enzymatic reactions in protein active pockets.     

The energy and geometric characteristics of the transition state in reactions of RO<Stack><Subscript>2</Subscript><Superscript>•</Superscript></Stack> with carbonyl compound C-H bonds

The energy and geometry of the transition state in reactions of the ethyl peroxyl radical with ethane, ethanol (its α and β C-H bonds), acetone, butanone-2, and acetaldehyde were calculated by the density functional theory method. In all these reactions (except EtO_2/? + ethanol α C-H bond), the C…H…O reaction center has an almost linear configuration (φ = 176° ± 2°); polar interaction only influences the r ^≠ (C…O) interatomic bond. In the reaction of EtO_2/? with the ethanol α C-H bond, it is the O-H…O H-bond formed in the transition state that determines the configuration of the reaction center with the angle φ(C…H…O) = 160°. The results were used to estimate the r ^≠ (C…H) and r ^≠ (O…H) interatomic bonds in the transition state by the method of intersecting parabolas and the contribution of polar interaction to the activation energy of reactions between peroxyl radicals and aldehydes and ketones.     

Direct hydrogen-atom abstraction by activated bleomycin: an experimental and computational study

Bleomycin (BLM), a glycopeptide antibiotic chemotherapy agent, is capable of single- and double-strand DNA damage. Activated bleomycin (ABLM), a low-spin Fe(III)-OOH complex, is the last intermediate detected prior to DNA cleavage following hydrogen-atom abstraction from the C-4' of a deoxyribose sugar moiety. The mechanism of this C-H bond cleavage reaction and the nature of the active oxidizing species are still open issues. We have used kinetic measurements in combination with density functional calculations to study the reactivity of ABLM and the mechanism of the initial attack on DNA. Circular dichroism spectroscopy was used to directly monitor the kinetics of the ABLM reaction. These experiments yield a deuterium isotope effect, kH/kD approximately 3 for ABLM decay, indicating the involvement of a hydrogen atom in the rate-determining step. H-atom donors with relatively weak X-H bonds accelerate the reaction rate, establishing that ABLM is capable of hydrogen-atom abstraction. Density functional calculations were used to evaluate the two-dimensional potential energy surface for the direct hydrogen-atom abstraction reaction of the deoxyribose 4'-H by ABLM. The calculations confirm that ABLM is thermodynamically and kinetically competent for H-atom abstraction. The activation and reaction energies for this pathway are favored over both homolytic and heterolytic O-O bond cleavage. Direct H-atom abstraction by ABLM would generate a reactive Fe(IV)=O species, which would be capable of a second DNA strand cleavage, as observed in vivo. This study provides experimental and theoretical evidence for direct H-atom abstraction by ABLM and proposes an attractive mechanism for the role of ABLM in double-strand cleavage.     

The HRuCCH, RuCCH2, and Ru-η2-C2H2 molecules: infrared spectra and density functional calculations

Laser-ablated ruthenium atoms undergo reaction with acetylene during condensation in excess neon and argon matrices to form a metallacycle complex, insertion into the C-H bond, and rearrangement to the vinylidene complex. The subject molecules were identified by (13)C(2)H(2) and C(2)D(2), isotopic substitutions and density functional theory (DFT) frequency calculations. The HRuCCH molecule is described by Ru-H, CH, and CC stretching modes and CCH deformation modes. A very strong CC double bond stretching, weak CH stretching, and CCH deformation frequencies were observed for the Ru═C═CH(2) complex. The metallacycle Ru-η(2)-(C(2)H(2)) is characterized through CC double bond stretching, CH stretching and CCH deformation modes. The reaction mechanism for formation of the Ru═C═CH(2) complex was investigated by B3LYP internal reaction coordinate calculations, and the hydrido-alkyny complex is the rate-determining step. The delocalized three-center-four-electron π bond using the Ru 4d(xz) electron pair contributes to the C-C π* orbital and provides stabilization energy (ΔE((2)), second-order perturbation) for the vinylidene Ru═C═CH(2) complex.     

Intramolecular arene hydroxylation versus intermolecular olefin epoxidation by (mu-eta2:eta2-peroxo)dicopper(II) complex supported by dinucleating ligand

A discrete (mu-eta2:eta2-peroxo)Cu(II)2 complex, [Cu2(O2)(H-L)]2+, is capable of performing not only intramolecular hydroxylation of a m-xylyl linker of a dinucleating ligand but also intermolecular epoxidation of styrene via electrophilic reaction to the C=C bond and hydroxylation of THF by H-atom abstraction.     

Coherent low-frequency motions of hydrogen bonded acetic acid dimers in the liquid phase

Ultrafast vibrational dynamics of cyclic hydrogen bonded dimers and the underlying microscopic interactions are studied in temporally and spectrally resolved pump-probe experiments with 100 fs time resolution. Femtosecond excitation of the O-H and/or O-D stretching mode gives rise to pronounced changes of the O-H/O-D stretching absorption displaying both rate-like kinetic and oscillatory components. A lifetime of 200 fs is measured for the v=1 state of the O-H stretching oscillator. The strong oscillatory absorption changes are due to impulsively driven coherent wave packet motions along several low-frequency modes of the dimer between 50 and 170 cm(-1). Such wave packets generated via coherent excitation of the high-frequency O-H/O-D stretching oscillators represent a clear manifestation of the anharmonic coupling of low- and high-frequency modes. The underdamped low-frequency motions dephase on a time scale of 1-2 ps. Calculations of the vibrational potential energy surface based on density functional theory give the frequencies, anharmonic couplings, and microscopic elongations of the low-frequency modes, among them intermolecular hydrogen bond vibrations. Oscillations due to the excitonic coupling between the two O-H or O-D stretching oscillators are absent as is independently confirmed by experiments on mixed dimers with uncoupled O-H and O-D stretching oscillators.     

Is the ruthenium analogue of compound I of cytochrome p450 an efficient oxidant? A theoretical investigation of the methane hydroxylation reaction

High-valent metal-oxo complexes catalyze C-H bond activation by oxygen insertion, with an efficiency that depends on the identity of the transition metal and its oxidation state. Our study uses density functional calculations and theoretical analysis to derive fundamental factors of catalytic activity, by comparison of a ruthenium-oxo catalyst with its iron-oxo analogue toward methane hydroxylation. The study focuses on the ruthenium analogue of the active species of the enzyme cytochrome P450, which is known to be among the most potent catalysts for C-H activation. The computed reaction pathways reveal one high-spin (HS) and two low-spin (LS) mechanisms, all nascent from the low-lying states of the ruthenium-oxo catalyst (Ogliaro, F.; de Visser, S. P.; Groves, J. T.; Shaik, S. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2001, 40, 2874-2878). These mechanisms involve a bond activation phase, in which the transition states (TS's) appear as hydrogen abstraction species, followed by a C-O bond making phase, through a rebound of the methyl radical on the metal-hydroxo complex. However, while the HS mechanism has a significant rebound barrier, and hence a long lifetime of the radical intermediate, by contrast, the LS ones are effectively concerted with small barriers to rebound, if at all. Unlike the iron catalyst, the hydroxylation reaction for the ruthenium analogue is expected to follow largely a single-state reactivity on the LS surface, due to a very large rebound barrier of the HS process and to the more efficient spin crossover expected for ruthenium. As such, ruthenium-oxo catalysts (Groves, J. T.; Shalyaev, K.; Lee, J. In The Porphyrin Handbook; Biochemistry and Binding: Activation of Small Molecules, Vol. 4; Kadish, K. M., Smith, K. M., Guilard, R., Eds.; Academic Press: New York, 2000; pp 17-40) are expected to lead to more stereoselective hydroxylations compared with the corresponding iron-oxo reactions. It is reasoned that the ruthenium-oxo catalyst should have larger turnover numbers compared with the iron-oxo analogue, due to lesser production of suicidal side products that destroy the catalyst (Ortiz de Montellano, P. R.; Beilan, H. S.; Kunze, K. L.; Mico, B. A. J. Biol. Chem. 1981, 256, 4395-4399). The computations reveal also that the ruthenium complex is more electrophilic than its iron analogue, having lower hydrogen abstraction barriers. These reactivity features of the ruthenium-oxo system are analyzed and shown to originate from a key fundamental factor, namely, the strong 4d(Ru)-2p(O,N) overlaps, which produce high-lying pi(Ru-O), sigma(Ru-O), and sigma(Ru-N) orbitals and thereby to lead to a preference of ruthenium for higher-valent oxidation states with higher electrophilicity, for the effectively concerted LS hydroxylation mechanism, and for less suicidal complexes. As such, the ruthenium-oxo species is predicted to be a more robust catalyst than its iron-oxo analogue.     

Iron(II)-catalyzed amidation of aldehydes with iminoiodinanes at room temperature and under microwave-assisted conditions

A method for the amidation of aldehydes with PhI=NTs/PhI=NNs as the nitrogen source and an inexpensive iron(II) chloride + pyridine as the in situ formed precatalyst under mild conditions at room temperature or microwave assisted conditions is described. The reaction was operationally straightforward and accomplished in moderate to excellent product yields (20-99%) and with complete chemoselectivity with the new C-N bond forming only at the formylic C-H bond in substrates containing other reactive functional groups. By utilizing microwave irradiation, comparable product yields and short reaction times of 1 h could be accomplished. The mechanism is suggested to involve insertion of a putative iron-nitrene/imido group to the formylic C-H bond of the substrate via a H-atom abstraction/radical rebound pathway mediated by the precatalyst [Fe(py)(4)Cl(2)] generated in situ from reaction of FeCl(2) with pyridine.     

A comparison of C-F and C-H bond activation by zerovalent ni and pt: a density functional study

Density functional theory indicates that oxidative addition of the C-F and C-H bonds in C6F6 and C6H6 at zerovalent nickel and platinum fragments, M(H2PCH2CH2PH2), proceeds via initial exothermic formation of an eta2-coordinated arene complex. Two distinct transition states have been located on the potential energy surface between the eta2-coordinated arene and the oxidative addition product. The first, at relatively low energy, features an eta3-coordinated arene and connects two identical eta2-arene minima, while the second leads to cleavage of the C-X bond. The absence of intermediate C-F or C-H sigma complexes observed in other systems is traced to the ability of the 14-electron metal fragment to accommodate the eta3-coordination mode in the first transition state. Oxidative addition of the C-F bond is exothermic at both nickel and platinum, but the barrier is significantly higher for the heavier element as a result of strong 5dpi-ppi repulsions in the transition state. Similar repulsive interactions lead to a relatively long Pt-F bond with a lower stretching frequency in the oxidative addition product. Activation of the C-H bond is, in contrast, exothermic only for the platinum complex. We conclude that the nickel system is better suited to selective C-F bond activation than its platinum analogue for two reasons: the strong thermodynamic preference for C-F over C-H bond activation and the relatively low kinetic barrier.     

Conversion of methane to methanol at the mononuclear and dinuclear copper sites of particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO): a DFT and QM/MM study

Methane hydroxylation at the mononuclear and dinuclear copper sites of pMMO is discussed using quantum mechanical and QM/MM calculations. Possible mechanisms are proposed with respect to the formation of reactive copper-oxo and how they activate methane. Dioxygen is incorporated into the Cu(I) species to give a Cu(II)-superoxo species, followed by an H-atom transfer from a tyrosine residue near the monocopper active site. A resultant Cu(II)-hydroperoxo species is next transformed into a Cu(III)-oxo species and a water molecule by the abstraction of an H-atom from another tyrosine residue. This process is accessible in energy under physiological conditions. Dioxygen is also incorporated into the dicopper site to form a (mu-eta(2):eta(2)-peroxo)dicopper species, which is then transformed into a bis(mu-oxo)dicopper species. The formation of this species is more favorable in energy than that of the monocopper-oxo species. The reactivity of the Cu(III)-oxo species is sufficient for the conversion of methane to methanol if it is formed in the protein environment. Since the sigma orbital localized in the Cu-O bond region is singly occupied in the triplet state, this orbital plays a role in the homolytic cleavage of a C-H bond of methane. The reactivity of the bis(mu-oxo)dicopper species is also sufficient for the conversion of methane to methanol. The mixed-valent bis(mu-oxo)Cu(II)Cu(III) species is reactive to methane because the amplitude of the sigma singly occupied MO localized on the bridging oxo moieties plays an essential role in C-H activation.     

Theoretical study of the mechanism of alkane hydroxylation and ethylene epoxidation reactions catalyzed by diiron bis-oxo complexes. The effect of substrate molecules

The hybrid density functional method B3LYP was used to study the mechanism of the hydrocarbon (methane, ethane, methyl fluoride, and ethylene) oxidation reaction catalyzed by the complexes cis-(H(2)O)(NH(2))Fe(mu-O)(2)(eta(2)-HCOO)(2)Fe(NH(2))(H(2)O), I, and cis-(HCOO)(Imd)Fe(mu-O)(2)(eta(2)-HCOO)(2)Fe(Imd)(HCOO) (Imd = Imidazole), I_m, the "small" and "medium" model of compound Q of the methane monooxygenase (MMO). The improvement of the model from "small" to "medium" did not change the qualitative conclusions but significantly changed the calculated energetics. As in the case of methane oxidation reported by the authors previously, the reaction of all the substrates studied here is shown to start by coordination of the substrate molecule to the bridging oxygen atom, O(1) of I, an Fe(IV)-Fe(IV) complex, followed by the H-atom abstraction at the transition state III leading to the bound hydroxy alkyl intermediate IV of Fe(III)-Fe(IV) core. IV undergoes a very exothermic coupling of alkyl and hydroxy groups to give the alcohol complex VI of Fe(III)-Fe(III) core, from which alcohol dissociates. The H(b)-atom abstraction (or C-H bond activation) barrier at transition state III is found to be a few kcal/mol lower for C(2)H(6) and CH(3)F than for CH(4). The calculated trend in the H(b)-abstraction barrier, CH(4) (21.8 kcal/mol) > CH(3)F (18.8 kcal/mol) > or = C(2)H(6) (18.5 kcal/mol), is consistent with the C-H(b) bond strength in these substrates. Thus, the weaker the C-H(b) bond, the lower is the H(b)-abstraction barrier. It was shown that the replacement of a H-atom in a methane molecule with a more electronegative group tends to make the H(b)-abstraction transition state less "reactant-like". In contrast, the replacement of the H-atom in CH(4) with a less electronegative group makes the H(b)-abstraction transition state more "reactant-like". The epoxidation of ethylene by complex I is found to proceed without barrier and is a highly exothermic process. Thus, in the reaction of ethylene with complex I the only product is expected to be ethylene oxide, which is consistent with the experiment.