Why non-heme Mn complexes of amino 2-quinolylmethyl ligands are inactive in oxidation catalysis? An insight from X-ray data

In the last decade, manganese complexes with bis-amino-bis-pyridylmethyl and structurally related N4 donor ligands have emerged as efficient catalysts of selective epoxidations and C-H oxidations of organic substrates with H2O2. Although a plethora of various ligand structures have been designed, (quinolin-2-yl)methyl moieties have not been involved in constructing such catalysts. Herewith we report crystal structures of several Mn complexes with (quinolin-2-yl)methyl and discuss possible reasons of their inactivity in oxidation catalysis.

Automated summary

In the past decade, manganese complexes with bis-amino-bis-pyridylmethyl and related N4 donor ligands have been found to be efficient catalysts for selective epoxidations and C-H oxidations using H2O2. However, the use of (quinolin-2-yl)methyl groups in constructing such catalysts has not been explored. In this study, we report the crystal structures of several Mn complexes with (quinolin-2-yl)methyl and discuss the possible reasons for their inactivity in oxidation catalysis.