Bhaskar Mondal

Organic super-electron-donors : initiators in transition metal-free haloarene-arene coupling

Recent papers report transition metal-free couplings of haloarenes to arenes to form biaryls, triggered by alkali metal tert-butoxides in the presence of various additives. These reactions proceed through radical intermediates, but understanding the origin of the radicals has been problematic. Electron transfer from a complex formed from potassium tert-butoxide with additives, such as phenanthroline, has been suggested to initiate the radical process. However, our computational results encouraged us to search for alternatives. We report that heterocycle-derived organic electron donors achieve the coupling reactions and these donors can form in situ in the above cases. We show that an electron transfer route can operate either with phenanthrolines as additives or using pyridine as solvent, and we propose new heterocyclic structures for the respective electron donors involved in these cases. In the absence of additives, the coupling reactions are still successful, although more sluggish, and in those cases benzynes are proposed to play crucial roles in the initiation process.

Overturning established chemoselectivities: selective reduction of arenes over malonates and cyanoacetates by photoactivated organic electron donors

The prevalence of metal-based reducing reagents, including metals, metal complexes, and metal salts, has produced an empirical order of reactivity that governs our approach to chemical synthesis. However, this reactivity may be influenced by stabilization of transition states, intermediates, and products through substrate–metal bonding. This article reports that in the absence of such stabilizing interactions, established chemoselectivities can be overthrown. Thus, photoactivation of the recently developed neutral organic superelectron donor 5 selectively reduces alkyl-substituted benzene rings in the presence of activated esters and nitriles, in direct contrast to metal-based reductions, opening a new perspective on reactivity. The altered outcomes arising from the organic electron donors are attributed to selective interactions between the neutral organic donors and the arene rings of the substrates.

Bio-inspired mechanistic insights into CO2 reduction

The global energy and environmental concerns related to the excess CO2 concentration in the atmosphere have intensified the research and development regarding CO2 utilization. Due to the high stability and inertness of CO2, CO2 functionalization under mild conditions has been proven to be extremely challenging. Nature has, however, evolved efficient pathways to achieve this difficult transformation. Herein, we compare the mechanisms of CO2 two-electron reduction followed by synthetic catalysts and those by carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and formate dehydrogenase in order to provide more mechanistic insights into future catalyst design.

Control in the Rate-Determining Step Provides a Promising Strategy To Develop New Catalysts for CO2 Hydrogenation: A Local Pair Natural Orbital Coupled Cluster Theory Study

The development of efficient catalysts with base metals for CO2 hydrogenation has always been a major thrust of interest. A series of experimental and theoretical work has revealed that the catalytic cycle typically involves two key steps, namely, base-promoted heterolytic H2 splitting and hydride transfer to CO2, either of which can be the rate-determining step (RDS) of the entire reaction. To explore the determining factor for the nature of RDS, we present herein a comparative mechanistic investigation on CO2 hydrogenation mediated by [M(H)(η(2)-H2)(PP3(Ph))](n+) (M = Fe(II), Ru(II), and Co(III); PP3(Ph) = tris(2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl)phosphine) type complexes. In order to construct reliable free energy profiles, we used highly correlated wave function based ab initio methods of the coupled cluster type alongside the standard density functional theory. Our calculations demonstrate that the hydricity of the metal-hydride intermediate generated by H2 splitting dictates the nature of the RDS for the Fe(II) and Co(III) systems, while the RDS for the Ru(II) catalyst appears to be ambiguous. CO2 hydrogenation catalyzed by the Fe(II) complex that possesses moderate hydricity traverses an H2-splitting RDS, whereas the RDS for the high-hydricity Co(III) species is found to be the hydride transfer. Thus, our findings suggest that hydricity can be used as a practical guide in future catalyst design. Enhancing the electron-accepting ability of low-hydricity catalysts is likely to improve their catalytic performance, while increasing the electron-donating ability of high-hydricity complexes may speed up CO2 conversion. Moreover, we also established the active roles of base NEt3 in directing the heterolytic H2 splitting and assisting product release through the formation of an acid-base complex.

Toward Rational Design of 3d Transition Metal Catalysts for CO2 Hydrogenation Based on Insights into Hydricity-Controlled Rate-Determining Steps

Carbon dioxide functionalization attracts much interest due to the current environmental and energy challenges. Our earlier work (Mondal, B.; Neese, F.; Ye, S. Inorg. Chem. 2015, 54, 7192-7198) demonstrated that CO2 hydrogenation mediated by base metal catalysts [M(H)(η(2)-H2)(PP3(Ph))](n+) (M = Co(III) and Fe(II), n = 1, 2; PP3(Ph) = tris(2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl)phosphine) features discrete rate-determining steps (RDSs). Specifically, the reaction with [Co(III)(H)(η(2)-H2)(PP3(Ph))](2+) passes through a hydride-transfer RDS, whereas the conversion with [Fe(II)(H)(η(2)-H2)(PP3(Ph))](+) traverses a H2-splitting RDS. More importantly, we found that the nature and barrier of the RDS likely correlate with the hydride affinity or hydricity of the dihydride intermediate [M(H)2(PP3(Ph))]((n-1)+) generated by H2-splitting. In the present contribution, following this notion we design a series of potential Fe(II) and Co(III) catalysts, for which the respective dihydride species possess differential hydricities, and computationally investigated their reactivity toward CO2 hydrogenation. Our results reveal that lowering the hydrictiy of [Co(III)(H)2(PP3(Ph))](+) by introducing anionic anchors in PP3(Ph) dramatically decreases the hydride-transfer RDS barrier, as shown for the enhanced reactivity of [Co(H)(η(2)-H2)(CP3(Ph))](+) and [Co(H)(η(2)-H2)(SiP3(Ph))](+) (CP3(Ph) = tris(2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl)methyl, SiP3(Ph) = tris(2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl)silyl), while the same ligand modification increases the H2-splitting RDS barriers for [Fe(H)(η(2)-H2)(CP3(Ph))] and [Fe(H)(η(2)-H2)(SiP3(Ph))] relative to that for [Fe(H)(η(2)-H2)(PP3(Ph))](+). Conversely, upon increasing the hydricity of [Fe(II)(H)2(PP3(Ph))] by adding an electron-withdrawing group to PP3(Ph), the transformation with [Fe(H)(η(2)-H2)(PP3(PhNO2))](+) (PP3(PhNO2) = tris(2-(diphenylphosphino)-4-nitrophenyl)phosphine) is predicted to encounter a lower barrier for H2-splitting and a higher barrier for hydride transfer than those for [Fe(H)(η(2)-H2)(PP3(Ph))](+). Thus, we have shown that hydricity can be used as a guide to direct the rational design and development of more efficient catalysts.

Binding affinity of substituted ureido-benzenesulfonamide ligands to the carbonic anhydrase receptor: a theoretical study of enzyme inhibition.

The binding properties of a series of benzenesulfonamide inhibitors (4‐substituted‐ureido‐benzenesulfonamides, UBSAs) of human carbonic anhydrase II (hCA II) enzyme with active site residues have been studied using a hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) model. To account for the important docking interactions between the UBSAs ligand and hCA II enzyme, a molecular docking program AutoDock Vina is used. The molecular docking results obtained by AutoDock Vina revealed that the docked conformer has root mean square deviation value less than 1.50 Å compared to X‐ray crystal structures. The inhibitory activity of UBSA ligands against hCA II is found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. The thermodynamic parameters for inhibitor binding show that hydrogen bonding, hydrophilic, and hydrophobic interactions play a major role in explaining the diverse inhibitory range of these derivatives. Additionally, natural bond orbital analysis is performed to characterize the ligand–metal charge transfer stability. The insights gained from this study have great potential to design new hCA‐II inhibitor, 4‐[3‐(1‐p‐Tolyl‐4‐trifluoromethyl‐1H‐pyrazol‐3‐yl)‐ureido]‐benzenesulfonamide, which belongs to the family of UBSA inhibitors and shows similar type of inhibitor potency with hCA II. This work also reveals that a QM/MM model and molecular docking method are computationally feasible and accurate for studying substrate–protein inhibition.

Electronic Structure Contributions of Non-Heme Oxo-Iron(V) Complexes to the Reactivity

Oxo-iron(V) species have been implicated in the catalytic cycle of the Rieske dioxygenase. Their synthetic analog, [FeV(O)(OC(O)CH3)(PyNMe3)]2+ (1, PyNMe3 = 3,6,9,15-tetraazabicyclo[9.3.1]pentadeca-1(15),11,13-triene-3,6,9-trimethyl), derived from the O-O bond cleavage of its acetylperoxo iron(III) precursor, has been shown experimentally to perform regio- and stereoselective C-H and C═C bond functionalization. However, its structure-activity relation is poorly understood. Herein we present a detailed electronic-structure and spectroscopic analysis of complex 1 along with well-characterized oxo-iron(V) complexes, [FeV(O)(TAML)]- (2, TAML = tetraamido macrocyclic ligand), [FeV(O)(TMC)(NC(O)CH3)]+ (4, TMC = 1,4,8,11-tetramethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane), and [FeV(O)(TMC)(NC(OH)CH3)]2+ (4-H+), using wave function-based multireference complete active-space self-consistent field calculations. Our results reveal that the x/ y anisotropy of the 57Fe A-matrix is not a reliable spectroscopic marker to identify oxo-iron(V) species and that the drastically different A x and A y values determined for complexes 1, 4, and 4-H+ have distinctive origins compared to complex 2, a genuine oxo-iron(V) species. Complex 1, in fact, has a dominant character of [FeIV(O···OC(O)CH3)2-•]2+, i.e., an SFe = 1 iron(IV) center antiferromagnetically coupled to an O-O σ* radical, where the O-O bond has not been completely broken. Complex 4 is best described as a triplet ferryl unit that strongly interacts with the trans acetylimidyl radical in an antiferromagnetic fashion, [FeIV(O)(•N═C(O-)CH3)]+. Complex 4-H+ features a similar electronic structure, [FeIV(O)(•N═C(OH)CH3)]2+. Owing to the remaining approximate half σ-bond in the O-O moiety, complex 1 can arrange two electron-accepting orbitals (α σ*O-O and β Fe-d xz) in such a way that both orbitals can simultaneously interact with the doubly occupied electron-donating orbitals (σC-H or πC-C). Hence, complex 1 can promote a concerted yet asynchronous two-electron oxidation of the C-H and C═C bonds, which nicely explains the stereospecificity observed for complex 1 and the related species.