Preparation, Characterization and Reactivity of a Bis-hypochlorite Adduct of a Chiral Manganese(IV) Salen Complex.

A bis-hypochlorite adduct of a manganese(IV) salen complex having a chiral (R,R)-cyclohexane-1,2-diamine linkage (2-tBu) is successfully prepared and characterized by various spectroscopic methods. The reactions of 2-tBu with various organic substrates show that 2-tBu is capable of sulfoxidation, epoxidation, chlorination, and hydrogen abstraction reactions. However, the enantioselectivity of the epoxidation reactions by 2-tBu is much lower than that reported for the catalytic reactions by Jacobsen's catalyst. The low enantioselectivity is consistent with a planar conformation of the salen ligand, which is suggested by circular dichroism spectroscopy. This study suggests that 2-tBu is not a reactive intermediate of Jacobsen's enantioselective epoxidation catalysis.