Theoretical Study of Electronic Structure, Formation
Mechanism and Intramolecular Sulfoxide Imidation Reactivity of Iron
Phthalocyanine Nitrene Complex
YUAN Bin-Bin, SONG Jin-Shuai*, YAN Xue-Yuan, XIAO Han and LI Chun-Sen*
Chin.
J. Struct. Chem. 2021, 40, 415-423 DOI: 10.14102/j.cnki.0254-5861.2011-2956
April 15, 2021
nitrene transfer, sulfoxide cyclization, iron
phthalocyanine, DFT, reaction mechanism
ABSTRACT
Density
functional theory (DFT) calculations are performed to investigate recent experimentally
studied ring-closing sulfoxide imidation catalyzed by Fe(II)-phthalocyanine (FeIIPc).
Our results reveal that the ground state of iron phthalocyanine nitrene intermediate
(PcFeNR, R = (CH2)3(SO)Ph), which is believed to mediate
the intramolecular
imitation, is triplet state featuring a diradical structure. The formation of PcFeNR is the result of a denitrification
process with a calculated high-barrier of 23.4 kcal/mol which is in good
agreement with the experimentally observed high reaction temperature of 100 ℃. The generated PcFeNR
undergoes a low-barrier intramolecular nucleophilic attack by proximal nitrogen
atom on the sulfur accomplishing the cyclization of sulfoxide. This study
provides theoretical insights into the mechanism-based design of useful
catalysts for nitrene transfer reactions.