Synthesis and catalytic activity of μ-oxo ruthenium(IV) porphyrin species to promote amination reactions

This work describes the synthesis of ruthenium(IV) m-oxo porphyrin complexes of general formula [RuIV(TPP)(X)]2O which have been applied as catalysts in nitrene transfer reactions using aryl azides (ArN3) as nitrene sources. Collected data indicated that the catalytic efficiency of [RuIV(TPP)(OCH3)]2O was comparable to that of RuII(TPP)CO because of their analogous reactivity towards aryl azides to give the same catalytically active bis-imido species RuVI(TPP)(ArN)2. The reaction of [RuIV(TPP)(OCH3)]2O with Ph3CN3 or (CH3)3SiN3 afforded [RuIV(TPP)(N3)]2O which was fully characterised, its molecular structure was also determined by single crystal X-ray analysis.