New dibenzofuran-based tridentate ligands for transition metal catalysts for environmentally benign oxidation reactions

CHED 260

David Foster, Amna Ali, aali1@westga.edu, Johnathan Erler, jerler1@my.westga.edu, and Megumi Fujita, mfujita@westga.edu. Department of Chemistry, University of West Georgia, 1601 Maple St., Carrollton, GA 30118
Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potential “green” oxidant, because the only byproduct would be environmentally benign N2 gas. N2O is also a greenhouse gas, with a global industrial emission of 400 kilotons per year. The use of N2O as an oxidation reagent would thus doubly contribute to cleaner environment. However, good catalysts must be developed to activate this kinetically inert gas and achieve O-atom transfer to substrates. In this study, late d-block metal complexes with new dibenzofuran-based tridentate ligands are synthesized to be tested as catalysts for oxidation of organic substrates by N2O. Cu(I) and Ni(II) complexes of these ligands are expected to have labile coordination sites to allow N2O binding and activation. Spartan 5.0(Wavefunction) is used to estimate conformations and energies of the complexes as well as proposed reaction intermediates.