With funding from the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organo- metallic Chemistry Program, Professor Teddy G. Traylor of the University of California, San Diego will continue his studies on the mechanisms of oxidation reactions catalyzed by iron-porphyrin complexes. These reactions are models for biological iron-porphyrin based oxidations but may also be useful for laboratory or even industrial oxidations. The design and preparation of new catalysts and detailed studies of the individual steps involved in catalyzed epoxidation of alkenes, hydroxylation of alkanes, oxidations of arenes and of phenols will be undertaken in this grant period. Also to be considered are the utilization of dioxygen as the oxygen source and the use of recently discovered halogenated porphyrin catalysts, and especially polymeric versions of these, for oxidation reactions. %%% Oxidation reactions are fundamental to many biological and industrial processes. The mechanisms of many of these reactions are still unknown and limit the ability of scientists to design new oxidants and particularly catalysts for selective oxidation of organic compounds. The research to be performed here has as its objective the determination of the way in which man-made mimics of biological oxidants react with various types of organic molecules. Recently discovered forms of the iron based compounds have unique reactivities that have been retained in very stable polymeric forms of the compounds. These polymeric catalysts show promise for preparative scale laboratory reactions and possibly small-scale industrial processes.
