Fe2+-Catalyzed Heterolytic RO−OH Bond Cleavage and Substrate Oxidation: A Functional Synthetic Non-Heme Iron Monooxygenase System

The reaction of [Fe22+(H2Hbamb)2(N-MeIm)2], [1], a binuclear, non-heme iron complex, with 2-methyl-1-phenylprop-2-yl hydroperoxide (MPPH) shows that [1] induces heterolytic cleavage of the peroxy O-O bond. Catalytic atom transfer reactions (1:MPPH:PhSMe 1:596:6011) resulted in the highly efficient (99 +/- 1%), catalytic oxidation of phenyl methyl sulfide to phenyl methyl sulfoxide/sulfone (T.N. = 500/11 respectively) and cyclohexane to cyclohexanol/cyclohexanone (T.N. = 230/5 respectively) showing the highly efficient, catalytic capacity of [1] to carry out oxygen insertion chemistry.