A series of aluminum salen-type complexes [where salen is N,N'-bis(salicylaldimine)-1,2-ethylenediamine] bearing ligands that differ in their steric and electronic properties have been synthesized and investigated for the polymerization of rac-lactide. X-ray crystal structures on key precatalysts reveal metal coordination geometries intermediate between trigonal bipyramidal and square-based pyr...

Reaction of [RuVI(N)(L1)(MeOH)]+ (L1 ) N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-o-cyclohexylenediamine dianion) with excess pyridine in CH3CN produces [Ru(L)(py)2] and N2. The proposed mechanism involves initial equilibrium formation of [RuVI(N)(L1)(py)]+, which undergoes rapid N · · · N coupling to produce [(py)(L1)RuIIINtN-RuIII(L1)(py)]2+; this is followed by pyridine substituion to give the final product. Th...

Structurally well-defined bimetallic titanium(IV) (salen) and monometallic vanadium(V) (salen) complexes have been used as catalysts for the asymmetric addition of trimethylsilyl cyanide to β-nitroalkenes to produce chiral nitronitriles with ee values in the range of 79-89 % and conversions up to 100 % at 0 °C. The reaction conditions (solvent, temperature, time and vanadium complex counter-ion...

The (salen)Co(III)-catalyzed hydrolytic kinetic resolution (HKR) of terminal epoxides is a bimetallic process with a rate controlled by partitioning between a nucleophilic (salen)Co-OH catalyst and a Lewis acidic (salen)Co-X catalyst. The commonly used (salen)Co-OAc and (salen)Co-Cl precatalysts undergo complete and irreversible counterion addition to epoxide during the course of the epoxide hy...

The use of chiral Ni(II)-salen derivatives was examined in mediated electrohydrocyclization (EHC) reactions. Cyclic voltammetry established the existence of a catalytic current. Bulk electrolysis revealed a slight change in the diastereoselectivity of the cyclizations. Density functional theory (DFT) computational studies showed that Ni(II)-salen and Zn(II)-salen were the best metal-salens for ...

Exploiting carbon dioxide as co-monomer with epoxides in the production of polycarbonates is economically highly attractive. More effective catalysts for this reaction are intensively being sought. To promote better understanding of the catalytic pathways, this study uses density functional theory calculations to elucidate the reaction step of CO2 insertion into cobalt(III)-alkoxide bonds, whic...

A thorough study of structural and magnetic properties was performed on a series of trinuclear and dinuclear Mn(III)/Fe(III) complexes consisting of [M(L4)(Solv)](+) and [Fe(CN)5(NO)](2-) moieties (M = Fe(III) or Mn(III), Solv = H2O or CH3OH, L4 = tetradentate salen-type ligands), in which dominant magnetic exchange is mediated by O(S)-H···O(Ph) hydrogen bonds in [M(L4)(Solv)](+)···[M(L4)(Solv)...

Ever since Nugent first reported a practical, catalytic method for the enantioselective opening of meso-epoxides with trimethylsilyl azide (TMSN3), [1] such desymmetrization reactions of epoxides and aziridines using a variety of nucleophiles have been the subject of extensive research. The less developed ring-opening reactions, those of meso-aziridines by carbon and nitrogen nucleophiles, give...