We describe herein the hydrogen-atom transfer (HAT)/ proton-coupled electron-transfer (PCET) reactivity for FeIV-oxo and FeIII-oxo complexes (1–4) that activate C-H, N-H, and O-H bonds in 9,10 dihydroanthracene (S1), dimethylformamide (S2), 1,2 diphenylhydrazine (S3), p-methoxyphenol (S4), and 1,4-cyclohexadiene (S5). In 1–3, the iron is pentacoordinated by tris[N'-tert-butylureaylato)-N-ethylene]aminato ([H3buea]3−) or its derivatives. These complexes are basic, in the order 3 >> 1 > 2. Oxidant 4, [FeIVN4Py(O)]2+ (N4Py: N,N-bis(2-pyridylmethyl)-bis(2-pyridyl) methylamine), is the least basic oxidant. The DFT results match experimental trends and exhibit a mechanistic spectrum ranging from concerted HAT and PCET reactions to concerted-asynchronous proton transfer (PT) / electron transfer (ET) mechanisms, all the way to PT. The singly occupied orbital along the O---H---X (X= C, N, O) moiety in the TS shows clearly that in the PCET cases, the electron is transferred separately from the proton. The Bell-Evans-Polanyi principle does not account for the observed reactivity pattern, as evidenced by the scatter in the plot of calculated barrier vs. reactions driving forces. However, a plot of the deformation energy in the TS vs. the respective barrier provides a clear signature of the HAT/PCET dichotomy. Thus, in all C-H bond activations, the barrier derives from the deformation energy required to create the TS, whereas in N-H/O-H bond activations, the deformation energy is much larger than the corresponding barrier, indicating the presence of stabilizing interaction between the TS fragments. A valence bond model is used to link the observed results with the basicity/acidity of the reactants.

Over the past decades metalloenzymes and their synthetic models have emerged as an area of increasing research interest. The metalloenzymes and their synthetic models oxidize organic molecules using oxometal complexes (OMCs), especially oxoiron(IV)-based ones. Theoretical studies have helped researchers to characterize the active species and to resolve mechanistic issues. This activity has generated massive amounts of data on the relationship between the reactivity of OMCs and the transition metal's identity, oxidation state, ligand sphere, and spin state. Theoretical studies have also produced information on transition state (TS) structures, reaction intermediates, barriers, and rate-equilibrium relationships. For example, the experimental-theoretical interplay has revealed that nonheme enzymes carry out H-abstraction from strong C-H bonds using high-spin (S = 2) oxoiron(IV) species with four unpaired electrons on the iron center. However, other reagents with higher spin states and more unpaired electrons on the metal are not as reactive. Still other reagents carry out these transformations using lower spin states with fewer unpaired electrons on the metal. The TS structures for these reactions exhibit structural selectivity depending on the reactive spin states. The barriers and thermodynamic driving forces of the reactions also depend on the spin state. H-Abstraction is preferred over the thermodynamically more favorable concerted insertion into C-H bonds. Currently, there is no unified theoretical framework that explains the totality of these fascinating trends. This Account aims to unify this rich chemistry and understand the role of unpaired electrons on chemical reactivity. We show that during an oxidative step the d-orbital block of the transition metal is enriched by one electron through proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET). That single electron elicits variable exchange interactions on the metal, which in turn depend critically on the number of unpaired electrons on the metal center. Thus, we introduce the exchange-enhanced reactivity (EER) principle, which predicts the preferred spin state during oxidation reactions, the dependence of the barrier on the number of unpaired electrons in the TS, and the dependence of the deformation energy of the reactants on the spin state. We complement EER with orbital-selection rules, which predict the structure of the preferred TS and provide a handy theory of bioinorganic oxidative reactions. These rules show how EER provides a Hund's Rule for chemical reactivity: EER controls the reactivity landscape for a great variety of transition-metal complexes and substrates. Among many reactivity patterns explained, EER rationalizes the abundance of high-spin oxoiron(IV) complexes in enzymes that carry out bond activation of the strongest bonds. The concepts used in this Account might also be applicable in other areas such as in f-block chemistry and excited-state reactivity of 4d and 5d OMCs.

This article addresses the intriguing hydrogen-abstraction (H-abstraction) and oxygen-transfer (O-transfer) reactivity of a series of nonheme [Fe(IV)(O)(TMC)(Lax)](z+) complexes, with a tetramethyl cyclam ligand and a variable axial ligand (Lax), toward three substrates: 1,4-cyclohexadiene, 9,10-dihydroanthracene, and triphenyl phosphine. Experimentally, O-transfer-reactivity follows the relative electrophilicity of the complexes, whereas the corresponding H-abstraction-reactivity generally increases as the axial ligand becomes a better electron donor, hence exhibiting an antielectrophilic trend. Our theoretical results show that the antielectrophilic trend in H-abstraction is affected by tunneling contributions. Room-temperature tunneling increases with increase of the electron donation power of the axial-ligand, and this reverses the natural electrophilic trend, as revealed through calculations without tunneling, and leads to the observed antielectrophilic trend. By contrast, O-transfer-reactivity, not being subject to tunneling, retains an electrophilic-dependent reactivity trend, as revealed experimentally and computationally. Tunneling-corrected kinetic-isotope effect (KIE) calculations matched the experimental KIE values only if all of the H-abstraction reactions proceeded on the quintet state (S = 2) surface. As such, the present results corroborate the initially predicted two-state reactivity (TSR) scenario for these reactions. The increase of tunneling with the electron-releasing power of the axial ligand, and the reversal of the "natural" reactivity pattern, support the "tunneling control" hypothesis (Schreiner et al., ref 19). Should these predictions be corroborated, the entire field of C-H bond activation in bioinorganic chemistry would lay open to reinvestigation.

The reactivity of the homo-and heteronuclear oxide clusters [XYO 2 ] + (X, Y = Al, Si, Mg) toward methane was studied using Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, in conjunction with high-level quantum mechanical calculations. The most reactive cluster by both experiment and theory is [Al 2 O 2 ] •+ . In its favorable pathway, this cluster abstracts a hydrogen atom by means of proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) instead of following the conventional hydrogen-atom transfer (HAT) route. This mechanistic choice originates in the strong Lewis acidity of the aluminum site of [Al 2 O 2 ] •+ , which cleaves the C−H bond heterolytically to form an Al−CH 3 entity, while the proton is transferred to the bridging oxygen atom of the cluster ion. In addition, a comparison of the reactivity of heteronuclear and homonuclear oxide clusters [XYO 2 ] + (X, Y = Al, Si, Mg) reveals a striking doping effect by aluminum. Thus, the vacant s−p hybrid orbital on Al acts as an acceptor of the electron pair from methyl anion (CH 3 − ) and is therefore eminently important for bringing about thermal methane activation by PCET. For the Al-doped cluster ions, the spin density at an oxygen atom, which is crucial for the HAT mechanism, acts here as a spectator during the course of the PCET mediated C−H bond cleavage. A diagnostic plot of the deformation energy vis-a-vis the barrier shows the different HAT/PCET reactivity map for the entire series. This is a strong connection to the recently discussed mechanism of oxidative coupling of methane on magnesium oxide surfaces proceeding through Grignard-type intermediates.

b S Supporting Information T here is a surge of interest in synthetic models of mononuclear nonheme iron enzymes, 1À6 which perform CÀH activation and lead to the formation of alcohols and alkenes. Both the enzymes 1 and the synthetic models utilize high-valent iron-(IV)-oxo complexes as the active species. 2À5 One of the potent synthetic complexes is [N4PyFe IV O] 2+ (N4Py: N,N-bis (2-pyridylmethyl)-bis(2-pyridyl) methylamine), which is depicted in Scheme 1 and which is capable of activating even cyclohexane. 6,7 However, unlike the enzymatic complexes that have high-spin quintet (S = 2) ground states, the synthetic variants are generally characterized by triplet ground states (S = 1) 4 and low-lying quintet excited states (S = 2) and as such have a more complex reactivity behavior. Density functional theory (DFT) has contributed to the understanding of this reactivity, which was characterized as two-state reactivity (TSR), 8 wherein the S = 2 state cuts through the larger S = 1 barrier and mediates the reaction. 9À13 However, because most of the synthetic complexes carry a high positive charge, usually 2+, the gas-phase calculations have resulted in some nonphysical anomalies, such as barrier-free S = 2 surfaces, 10,11 electron transfer processes, artificial charge delocalization, 14 formation of charged organic intermediates due to hydride abstractions instead of the experimentally observed hydrogen atom abstraction (HAT), 6 and discontinuities in the potential energy profiles. 10,15 These anomalies were invincibly shown 14,16,17 to originate in the self-interaction error inherent in DFT. As such, an important class of these bioinorganic reactions cannot be confidently studied with DFT unless these anomalies can be evaded. Siegbahn et al. 14,16 have suggested that the anomalies can be muted by masking the charge of the iron oxo reagent, for example, by using counterions. 14 In this Letter, we report the boon of incorporating counterions in the UB3LYP calculations of the reactions, depicted in Scheme 1, of the synthetic complex 6 [N4PyFe IV O] 2+ with cyclohexadiene, with which all of the above anomalies manifest with the bare oxidant (model 1), and cyclohexane, for which the anomalies appear after the first HAT, in the follow-up steps in Scheme 1a. As shall be shown, adding the two ClO 4À counterions (model 2) as in the [N4PyFe II (CH 3 CN)](ClO 4 ) 2 crystal structure 18 removes the anomalies and creates smooth energy profiles that enable one to study the entire stepwise processes in Scheme 1a, explore various reaction trajectories (σ/π) 9b,19À21 of the rate-limiting HAT step, offer unequivocal characterization of the reaction intermediates, assess and derive coherent reactivity Scheme 1. (a) Reactions Studied Using (b) Oxidant Models 1, 1-solv, and 2 (1-solv Signifies That All Species Are Optimized in the Solvent) and (c) Two Substrates a a Reb and 2H are abbreviated processes.