New publication about Cu2O2 chemistry in Chem. - Eur. J. online

Activation and transfer of molecular oxygen is crucial for oxidation processes, because dioxygen is cheap and readily available. Tyrosinase model systems serve as tool to investigate the reaction mechanisms. Hybrid guanidine-stabilized copper(I) complexes are able to bind dioxygen in a bis(µ-oxo) dicopper(III) complex and to transfer it to phenolic substrates. We succeeded in characterizing the reactive bis(µ-oxo) species spectroscopically at low temperatures and evaluating its activity in catalytic oxygenation reactions of mono- and bicyclic aromatic alcohols. For the first time, this phenolase activity was successfully applied on more complex substrate classes. The selective C-H activation of these substrates paves the way to future developments on tyrosinase model systems on the route to atom-economic oxygenation reactions.

The article Exceptional Substrate Diversity in Oxygenation Reactions Catalyzed by a Bis(μ-oxo) Copper Complex is available on the website of the publisher.