Mixed tetradentate NHC/1,2,3-triazole iron complexes bearing cis labile coordination sites as highly active catalysts in Lewis and Brønsted acid mediated olefin epoxidation

Abstract Two bio-inspired non-heme iron complexes bearing mixed tetradentate N-heterocyclic carbene/1,2,3-triazole ligands with cis labile coordination sites are reported. The compounds are studied in olefin epoxidation catalysis using H2O2 as oxidant. Sc(OTf)3, HClO4 and HOAc are applied as additives resulting in significant improvement of catalytic performance. Under optimized conditions the most active catalyst exhibits activities of 76,000 turnovers per hour, which is the highest reported value for an iron(II) catalyst. The complexes reveal comparably high stability and enable the challenging epoxidation of functionalized olefins. These results prove 1,2,3-triazoles to be promising and tunable ligands for iron catalyzed oxidation reactions.