The
reductive activation of molecular oxygen catalyzed by iron-based
enzymes toward its use as an oxygen donor is paradigmatic for oxygen
transfer reactions in nature. Mechanistic studies on these enzymes
and related biomimetic coordination compounds designed to form reactive
intermediates, almost invariably using various “shunt”
pathways, have shown that high-valent Fe(V)O and the formally
isoelectronic Fe(IV)O porphyrin cation radical intermediates
are often thought to be the active species in alkane and arene hydroxylation
and alkene epoxidation reactions. Although this four decade long research
effort has yielded a massive amount of spectroscopic data, reactivity
studies, and a detailed, but still incomplete, mechanistic understanding,
the actual reductive activation of molecular oxygen coupled with efficient
catalytic transformations has rarely been experimentally studied.
Recently, we found that a completely inorganic iron–tungsten
oxide capsule with a keplerate structure, noted as {Fe30W72}, is an effective electrocatalyst for the cathodic
activation of molecular oxygen in water leading to the oxidation of
light alkanes and alkenes. The present report deals with extensive
reactivity studies of these {Fe30W72} electrocatalytic
reactions showing (1) arene hydroxylation including kinetic isotope
effects and migration of the ipso substituent to
the adjacent carbon atom (“NIH shift”); (2) a high kinetic
isotope effect for alkyl CH bond activation; (3) dealkylation
of alkylamines and alkylsulfides; (4) desaturation reactions; (5)
retention of stereochemistry in cis-alkene epoxidation;
and (6) unusual regioselectivity in the oxidation of cyclic and acyclic
ketones, alcohols, and carboxylic acids where reactivity is not correlated
to the bond disassociation energy; the regioselectivity obtained is
attributable to polar effects and/or entropic contributions. Collectively
these results also support the conclusion that the active intermediate
species formed in the catalytic cycle is consistent with a compound
I type oxidant. The activity of {Fe30W72} in
cathodic aerobic oxidation reactions shows it to be an inorganic functional
analogue of iron-based monooxygenases.