Visible light generation of chromium(V)-oxo salen complexes and mechanistic insights into catalytic sulfide oxidation

Abstract

Visible light irradiation of the photo-labile salen-chromium(III) chlorate or bromate precursors produced salen-chromium(V)-oxo complexes that were spectroscopically and kinetically indistinguishable from those formed by chemical oxidation of chromium(III) salens with PhI(OAc)2. The photochemistry observed in this work is ascribed to the heterolytic cleavage of the O-X bond in the apical counterion that results in a two-electron oxidation of the metal to form the chromium(V)-oxo species. Second-order rate constants for oxidation reactions of 3 with organic substrates were determined under pseudo-first order condition, and particularly low level of reactivity for sulfide oxidations was observed. In this study, chromium(III) salen complexes effectively catalyzed the oxidation of aryl sulfides into sulfoxides with PhI(OAc)2 in the presence of a small amount of water. The competition product studies with the Hammett correlation plot indicated that the observed chromium(V)-oxo species is not likely to serve as the major oxidant for the sulfide oxidations catalyzed by chromium(III) salens with PhI(OAc)2.