Hydrogen Peroxide Complex of Zinc

Journal of the American Chemical Society by Christian M. Wallen, John Bacsa and Christopher C. Scarborough  /  2d  //  keep unread  //  hide  //  preview

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b10450

 

Metal(H₂O₂) complexes have been implicated in kinetic and computational studies but have never been observed. Accordingly, H₂O₂ has been described as a very weak ligand. We report the first metal(H₂O₂) adduct, which is made possible by incorporating intramolecular hydrogen-bonding interactions with bound H₂O₂. This Zn^II(H₂O₂) complex decays in solution by a second-order process that is slow enough to enable characterization of this species by X-ray crystallography. This report speaks to the intermediacy of metal(H₂O₂) adducts in chemistry and biology and opens the door to exploration of these species in oxidation catalysis.