Oxygen atom transfers involving terminal metal-oxo functionalities are central to many biological transformations, 1 prominent in applications to organic synthesis, 2-4 and of increasing importance in inorganic systems as synthetic tools, 5-7 objectives in biomimicry, 1,8,9 and targets of fundamental studies. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] As a synthetic route to (silox) 3 WN (4, silox ) t Bu 3 SiO), the deoxygenation of (silox) 3 WNO (2) by (silox) 3 Ta (1-Ta) was attempted without success, despite ample precedent in cleavages of epoxides, 10 N 2 O, NO, 11 CO 2 , and CO. 12 A comparison study involving sources of M(silox) 3 (1-M; M ) V, Nb, Ta) revealed that features of deoxygenations of 2 and R 3 PO (R ) Me, Ph, t Bu) are the consequences of electronic effects enforced by a limiting steric environment. ) converted 2 to the nitride. (silox) 3 Nb(η 2 -N,C-4-picoline) (1-Nb-(4-pic), S ) 0) 11 and (silox) 3 NbPMe 3 (1-NbPMe 3 , S ) 1) 14 deoxygenated 2 and formed 4 and (silox) 3 NbO (3-Nb) swiftly at first, then more slowly as the released 4-picoline and PMe 3 inhibited the reactions, respectively. With a 4-picoline scavenger (1-Ta) present in the former, swift cyclometalation to (silox) 2 -HNbOSi t Bu 2 CMe 2 CH 2 (5-Nb, 23°C, <5 min) 14 competed with deoxygenation; 5-Nb then slowly deoxygenated 2, presumably via reversible formation of 1-Nb. The thermodynamics of deoxygenation 15 were investigated by high-level quantum calculations, 16 with (HO) 3 M serving as the model of respective tris-silox centers in 1-M and 3-M. In each case the reaction was extremely exoergic (25°C: M ) V, ∆G°r xn ) -66 kcal/mol; M ) Nb, Ta, -100 kcal/mol). With favorable thermodynamics, the uncompetitive (1-Ta) and relatively slow (1-V, 1-Nb) deoxygenations are puzzling.Since (silox) 3 V (1-V, S ) 1) binds various L (L ) THF, py, etc.), while (silox) 3 Ta (1-Ta, S ) 0) does not, 17 the singlet and triplet states of 1-M were examined via quantum calculations. 16 Figure 1 reveals that 1-V is a triplet at the optimized geometries for, and the TfS barrier is 17 kcal/mol, assuming a facile intersystem crossing. 1-Ta is a singlet at the optimized S ) 0 and S ) 1 geometries and its intersystem crossing barrier is 17 kcal/mol. 1-Nb is a singlet, but the conversion barrier to a triplet of nearly the same energy is 2 kcal/mol. If the approach of (silox) 3 WNO (2) to the 1-M center is linear because of intermolecular silox/silox interactions, then a 4e-repulsion will result in the case of 1-Ta, but successful docking to an S ) 1 intermediate (silox) 3 MONW(silox) 3 (1-M-2) will occur for M ) V, Nb. The additional S-T barrier forced on 1-Ta allows unimolecular cyclometalation to compete with the bimolecular deoxygenation of 2. Table 1 lists the results of R 3 PO deoxygenations by (1-V, Ta) and 1-NbL (L ) 4-pic, PMe 3 ), which are predicted by quantum calculations to be exothermic for V (-15 kcal/mol) and Nb or Ta (-45 kcal/mol) with Me 3 PO. Curiously, 1-Ta and 1-NbL both deoxygenated Me 3 PO and Ph 3 PO, but failed with t Bu 3 PO; 1-Ta cyclomet...