A Biomimetic Iron Catalyst for the Epoxidation of Olefins with Molecular Oxygen at Room Temperature

摘要

The selective oxidation of organic compounds remains a challenging task fundamentally important to life, the environment, and synthetic chemistry. Requirements for modern oxidation methods include cheap and selective catalysts, high atom efficiency, and environmentally friendly oxidants. In this context, molecular oxygen, especially in form of air, is the most desirable oxidant. However, efficient nonradical transformations using O2 are scarce, and novel catalysts that can activate O2 under mild conditions for the direct and selective oxidation of organic substrates are still needed. In this respect iron catalysts are particularly attractive because of the ready availability, low cost, and low toxicity of this metal. Significant progress has been made towards the application of easy-to-use iron catalysis in the last decade.