Organometallic chemistry of transition metal porphyrin complexes

Abstract

This chapter focuses on organo-metallic chemistry of transition metal porphyrin complexes. The broadest description of an organometallic porphyrin complex is one that contains both a porphyrin macrocycle and a metal carbon bond. The alkene epoxidation process for example, is proposed by some to involve interaction of the alkene substrate with the metal center prior to or concerted with, oxygen atom transfer, in which case there is a direct metal-carbon interaction. The availability of this coordination sites is important in many of the classic organometallic processes like oxidative addition, reductive elimination, migratory insertion, and agostic interactions. One of the great advantages of using the porphyrin macrocycle as the supporting ligand in organometallic chemistry is the high degree of control over coordination geometry, and the expectation that some of these processes might be strongly inhibited by the enforced trans geometry. Porphyrin complexes, besides being amenable to the usual structural and spectroscopic tools favored by organometallic chemists, have characteristics that are particularly suited to certain physical methods.