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Title: Redox catalysis involving substrate photooxidation with catalyst regeneration by substrate reduction. Simultaneous oxidative C-H bond cleavage and reductive C-S bond cleavage in thioethers catalyzed by W sub 10 O sub 32 sup 4 minus

Journal Article · · Journal of the American Chemical Society; (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ja00179a029· OSTI ID:5542815
;  [1]
  1. Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA (United States)

Several experiments examining the photooxidation of thioethers by polyoxotungstates have established that the less oxidizing photochemically active complex W{sub 10}O{sub 32}{sup 4{minus}} but not the more oxidizing photochemically active heteropolytungstates such as {alpha}-PW{sub 12}O{sub 40}{sup 3{minus}} can be used to effect both substrate photooxidation and reduction in the same reaction. Under anaerobic conditions in solution at ambient temperature, the excited state of W{sub 10}O{sub 32}{sup 4{minus}} reacts with thioethers in high selectivity by {alpha}-hydrogen abstraction to form the {alpha}-carbon radicals. Neither photooxidation by electron transfer to generate the thioether cation radicals nor production of the conventional oxygenated products, sulfoxide and sulfone, is seen in these reactions. The principal reduced form of the catalyst, W{sub 10}O{sub 32}{sup 6{minus}}, reduces thioethers to effect C-S bond cleavage; thus, the net observed products in anaerobic photooxidation of these substrates catalyzed by W{sub 10}O{sub 32}{sup 4{minus}} are the dimers resulting from coupling of the {alpha}-carbon radicals and C-S bond cleavage products including the hydrocarbon resulting from complete desulfurization of the thioether. The only important processes exhibited by the excited state,W{sub 10}O{sub 32}{sup 4{minus}*}, under conditions where background photooxidation of CH{sub 3}CN solvent is not significant ((thioether) > 25 mM) are attack on thioether substrate, k, and unimolecular radiationless decay, k{sub rd}.

OSTI ID:
5542815
Journal Information:
Journal of the American Chemical Society; (United States), Vol. 112:23; ISSN 0002-7863
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English