Oxygen atom transfer reactions from isolated (Oxo)manganese(V) corroles to sulfides

A series of five free-base corroles were metalated and brominated to form 10 manganese(III) corroles. Two of the free-base corroles and six manganese(III) corroles were analyzed by X-ray crystallography, including one complex that may be considered a transition-state analogue of oxygen atom transfer (OAT) from (oxo)manganese(V) to thioansisole. Oxidation by ozone allowed for isolation of the 10 corresponding (oxo)manganese(V) corroles, whose characterization by ¹H and ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy and electrochemistry revealed a low-spin and triply bound manganese-oxygen moiety. Mechanistic insight was obtained by investigating their reactivity regarding stoichiometric OAT to a series of p-thioanisoles, revealing a magnitude difference on the order of 5 between the β-pyrrole brominated (oxo)manganese(V) corroles relative to the nonbrominated analogues. The main conclusion is that the (oxo)manganese(V) corroles are legitimate OAT agents under conditions where proposed oxidant-coordinated reaction intermediates are irrelevant. Large negative Hammett ρ constants are obtained for the more reactive (oxo)manganese(V) corroles, consistent with expectation for such electrophilic species. The least reactive complexes display very little selectivity to the electron-richness of the sulfides, as well as a non-first-order dependence on the concentration of (oxo)manganese(V) corrole. This suggests that disproportionation of the original (oxo)manganese(V) corrole to (oxo)manganese(IV) and (oxo)manganese(VI) corroles, followed by substrate oxidation by the latter complex, gains importance when the direct OAT process becomes progressively less favorable.