Selective oxygenation of α-olefins by means of metalloporphyrin catalysts mimicking cytochrome P-450

Abstract

A significant problem associated with synthetic metalloporphyrin catalysts used to mimic oxygenation function of cytochrome P-450 is their deactivation due to the formation of inactive μ-oxo dimer. We prepared a series of porphyrin-based catalysts mimicking cytochrome P-450 potentially resistant to deactivation by varying the central metal ion, porphyrin ring substitution, and catalyst support. The influence of the nature of a solid support, the type of central cation and the chemical modification of the porphyrin ring on the catalytic efficiency was studied. The oxygenation ability of the synthesized catalysts was tested using 1-hexene as a substrate and tert-butyl hydroperoxide as an oxidant under various reaction conditions. Identification of the oxygenation products was performed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Quantification of the products formed was based on GC with flame ionization detection (FID). It was found that the application of low GC injection temperature (150 °C) was necessary to detect primary products of the oxygenation, peroxo alkenes, from which secondary oxygenation products, mainly epoxides, alcohols, aldehydes and ketones, were formed slowly. The efficiency of the individual catalysts depended on their structure and varied significantly. The most active catalysts were Fe(II)-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) immobilized on aminopolystyrene (aminoPS) and Mn(II)-TPP immobilized on aminoPS.