Oxidation of organic substrates catalyzed by novel mixed-ligand manganese(III) complexes

Novel [MnIII(amp)(bipy)(Cl)] (1) (H2amp: N-(hydroxyphenyl)salicyldimine; bipy: 2,2′-bipyridyl) and [MnIII(app)(bipy)(Cl)]+ (2) (H2app: N-(hydroxyphenyl)pyridine-2-carboxaldimine; bipy: 2,2′-bipyridyl) complexes have been synthesized and characterized by physico-chemical methods. Complexes 1 and 2 have been employed as catalysts in the oxidation of both saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons using tert-butylhydroperoxide (t-BuOOH). A mechanism involving formation of and transfer from a reactive highvalent Mn(V)-oxo species as catalytic intermediate is proposed for the catalytic processes.