Amination of C-H Bonds by Metal Porphyrins Catalysed Nitrene Transfer Reaction

The biological and pharmaceutical activities of organonitrogen compounds prompted the scientific community to develop new methods for the direct and selective C-N bond formation, working within restricted financial parameters and environmentally friendly requirements.In the last few years we have reported on the catalytic activity of metal porphyrin complexes in a wide range of reactions, such as olefin epoxidation,1 hydrocarbon amination and olefin aziridination. For these last reactions arylazides, a versatile class of starting material, was employed as atom-efficient aminating agents.2 ArN3 generate a nitrene functionality “ArN” and the eco-friendly molecular nitrogen is the only side product. The selective insertion of “ArN” into C–H bonds of benzylic substrates or olefins yields benzylic amines, benzylic imines or allylic amines. To clarify the mechanism of the C-H amination reactions, the ruthenium bis-imido porphyrin complex (1) was isolated and characterised by X-ray analysis. The role of 1 in catalytic nitrene insertions into C H bonds was studied in the reaction of ArN3 with several hydrocarbons proving that 1 is an active reaction intermediate. It also appears to have equilibrium between stability and reactivity.3 To the best of our knowledge, complex 1 is the first structurally characterized bis-imido porphyrin complex that shows a good catalytic activity in this class of reactions. References: [1] S. Fantauzzi, E. Gallo, E. Rose, N. Raoul, A. Caselli, S. Issa, F. Ragaini, S. Cenini, Organometallics , 2008, 27, 6143; [2] For a review see: S. Fantauzzi, A. Caselli and E. Gallo, Dalton Trans., 2009, 5434; [3] S. Fantauzzi, E. Gallo, A. Caselli, F. Ragaini, N. Casati, P. Macchi and S. Cenini Chem. Commun., 2009, 3952–3954