Metal-Free Activation of Molecular Oxygen by Quaternary Ammonium-Based Ionic Liquid: A Detail Mechanistic Study

0584442 - ÚOCHB 2025 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Khamaru, K. - Pal, U. - Shee, S. - Lo, Rabindranath - Seal, K. - Ghosh, P. - Maiti, N. C. - Banerji, B.
Metal-Free Activation of Molecular Oxygen by Quaternary Ammonium-Based Ionic Liquid: A Detail Mechanistic Study.
Journal of the American Chemical Society. Roč. 146, č. 10 (2024), s. 6912-6925. ISSN 0002-7863. E-ISSN 1520-5126
Institutional support: RVO:61388963
Keywords : nitrogen-heterocycles * reversible dehydrogenation * selective oxidation
Impact factor: 15, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c14366

Most oxidation processes in common organic synthesis and chemical biology require transition metal catalysts or metalloenzymes. Herein, we report a detailed mechanistic study of a metal-free oxygen (O-2) activation protocol on benzylamine/alcohols using simple quaternary alkylammonium-based ionic liquids to produce products such as amide, aldehyde, imine, and in some cases, even aromatized products. NMR and various control experiments established the product formation and reaction mechanism, which involved the conversion of molecular oxygen into a hydroperoxyl radical via a proton-coupled electron transfer process. Detection of hydrogen peroxide in the reaction medium using colorimetric analysis supported the proposed mechanism of oxygen activation. Furthermore, first-principles calculations using density functional theory (DFT) revealed that reaction coordinates and transition state spin densities have a unique spin conversion of triplet oxygen leading to formation of singlet products via a minimum energy crossing point. In addition to DFT, domain-based local pair natural orbital coupled cluster, (DLPNO-CCSD(T)), and complete active space self-consistent field, CASSCF(20,14) methods complemented the above findings. Partial density of states analysis showed stabilization of pi* orbital of oxygen in the presence of ionic liquid, making it susceptible to hydrogen abstraction in a mild, metal-free condition. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopic (ICP-AES) analysis of reactant and ionic liquids clearly showed the absence of any significant transition metal contamination. The current results described the origin of O-2 activation within the context of molecular orbital (MO) theory and opened up a new avenue for the use of ionic liquids as inexpensive, multifunctional and high-performance alternative to metal-based catalysts for O-2 activation.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0352362