.
Angewandte
Communications
to be about 0.75 V vs. Cp2Fe+/0 (1.43 V vs. NHE), signifying
that 1 is a powerful photooxidant. Complex 1 was chosen in
the present study to test for its photocatalytic activities.
Oxidation of secondary amines to imines and a-substitu-
tion of tertiary amines have important applications in organic
synthesis.[8] In the presence of oxygen, 1 was found to catalyze
oxidation of secondary amines under light irradiation at room
temperature. As summarized in Table 1, secondary benzyl
Table 2: Conversion and yield of oxidative cyanation of tertiary amines by
complex 1.
Entry
Substrate
R
Product
Conversion,
yield [%]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
5a
5a
5a
5a
5a
5b
5b
5c
5c
5d
5d
5e
5e
H
H
H
H
6a
6a
6a
6a
6a
6b
6b
6c
6c
6d
6d
6e
6e
100, 89[a]
100, 50[b]
100, 87[c]
6, n.d.[d]
2, n.d.[e]
Table 1: Conversion and yield of oxidation of secondary amines to imines
by complex 1.[a]
H
Me
Me
OMe
OMe
Cl
Cl
Br
Br
100, 86[a]
100, 50[b]
100, 84[a]
100, 43[b]
99, 92[a]
Entry
Substrate
R1
R2
Product
Conversion,
yield [%]
9
10
11
12
13
100, 27[b]
100, 82[a]
100, 33[b]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
3a
3b
3c
3d
3e
3 f
H
tBu
tBu
tBu
tBu
tBu
tBu
Bn
4a
4b
4c
4d
4e
4 f
100, 98
100, 98
100, 97
100, 94
100, 96
100, 97
100, 98
100, 89
Me-4
OMe-4
(OMe)2-3,4
F-4
Cl-4
H
[a] The substrate (0.107 mmol), NaCN (0.214 mmol), HOAc
(0.161 mmol), and catalyst 1 were dissolved in 1.6 mL CH3CN/CH3OH
(1:1, v/v). Solvent-saturated O2 was bubbled into the solution and light
(l>385 nm) was focused in front of the quartz cell. After 1.5 h, the
3g
3h
4g
4h
H
iPr
1
solvent was evaporated and the residue was subjected to H NMR
[a] The substrate (0.107 mmol) and catalyst 1 were dissolved in 1.6 mL
CH3CN. Solvent-saturated O2 was bubbled into the solution and light
(l>385 nm) was focused in front of the quartz cell. After 2.5 h, the
solvent was evaporated and the residue was subjected to H NMR
analysis. Conversions and yields were calculated on the basis of the
consumption of the substrates.
analysis. [b] The same reaction conditions as described in [a] except that
no acetic acid was added and irradiation time was 3 h. [c] Same reaction
conditions as that in [a] except that gaseous HCN was used instead of
NaCN/acetic acid. [d] Similar conditions with that in [a] but in the
absence of 1. [e] Similar conditions as in [a] except that the solution was
kept in darkness for 24 h. n.d.=not determined.
1
amines with a variety of functional groups (R1 and R2) can be
converted to imines efficiently in the presence of 1; light
irradiation and oxygen were used together as the oxidant.
Notably, all entries reached 100% conversion with excellent
product yields (89–98%), but only 0.15 mol% of 1 as catalyst
and a short irradiation time of 2.5 h were required. Singlet
oxygen sensitized from the triplet state of 1 is suggested to be
an active oxidant in this reaction.
Complex 1 can also catalyze light-induced generation of
hydrogen upon irradiation of a three-component system in
a degassed acetonitrile/water mixture comprising 1, trietha-
nolamine, and [Co(dmgH)2(py)Cl].[9] Upon irradiation,
a bright yellow color, which signified the reduction of CoIII
to CoII, developed within 30 s. Quenching experiments
revealed that oxidative quenching of 1 by [Co(dmgH)2(py)Cl]
has a close to diffusion-controlled rate constant of 4.9 ꢀ
109 mꢀ1 sꢀ1. However, reductive quenching with TEOA has
not been observed, implying that TEOA acted as a sacrificial
donor to reduce the 1+ generated by oxidative quenching of
1 with [Co(dmgH)2(py)Cl]. As depicted in Figure 3, the
maximum turnover of hydrogen production was more than
350 after 4 h of irradiation. We also allowed the three-
component system in an acetonitrile/water mixture to be
irradiated by sunlight. After 4 h, 250 turnovers of hydrogen
were obtained. For the photolysis using xenon lamp, we used
a glass filter to block the high-energy irradiation (l < 385 nm
from the xenon lamp), but no such protection was adopted in
the experiment when sunlight was used. Light photons with
wavelengths ranging from 315 to 385 nm (UV-A) from
sunlight are high in energy facilitating the photo-decompo-
sition of 1. This may account for the reduced amount of
hydrogen production. Another well-known method to gen-
erate hydrogen from water by light irradiation is to use an
electron relay and a hydrogen-generating catalyst.[8b] Such
system involves electron transfer from the photosensitizer to
We also turned our attention to the oxidative cyanation of
tertiary amines, such as N-aryltetrahydroisoquinoline
(Table 2). When N-phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline is
ꢀ
used, the a-C H bond reacts with singlet oxygen to give
iminium ions as the intermediate. The iminium ion is unstable
and rapidly reacts with nucleophiles to give the corresponding
a-substituted products. In this work, all of the N-aryl
tetrahydroisoquinoline substrates reacted with sodium cya-
nide in the presence of acetic acid to give the products in 82–
92% yields after 1.5 h of irradiation (l > 385 nm). This
reaction is tolerable to a variety of substituents R on the N-
aryl group. The addition of acetic acid is crucial, as the
product yield obtained without acetic acid is significantly
lower. Murahashi and co-workers have recently reported that
the oxidative cyanation of tertiary amines does not proceed in
the absence of acetic acid (we noted that their reactions are
not photocatalyzed).[8l] The possible role of acetic acid in our
case is to provide H+ so that CNꢀ could be more soluble in the
solvent, which facilitates nucleophilic attack of CNꢀ on
iminium ion.
ꢀ 2012 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 2654 –2657