Dioxygen activation and catalysis around ambient temperature is a long-standing challenge in chemical industry. Inspired by the significant roles of hydrogen bond networks in dioxygen activation and catalysis by redox enzymes, here, we present a Lewis acid promoted dioxygen activation by manganese(II) complexes toward efficient organophosphine oxygenation (vs. enzymatic Brönsted acid (hydrogen bond)). The active species was assigned to the manganese(III) superoxo species, and its electrostatic interaction with Al 3+ , that is, LMn III -O 2 −• ···Al 3+ , sharply enhanced its electrophilicity for oxygenation.
Liao et al. (Thu,) studied this question.