Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.129, No.9, 2424-2424, 2007
Formation of a cobalt(III) imido from a cobalt(II) amido complex. Evidence for proton-coupled electron transfer
The cobalt(II) amido complex, (LCoNHBu)-Bu-t (L = bulky tris(carbene)borate) reacts with the 2,4,6-tri(tertbutyl) phenoxy radical to form the cobalt(III) imido, (LCoNBu)-Bu-t. A computational investigation (SDD and 6-31G*) of possible reaction pathways provides evidence for a mechanism involving concerted proton-coupled electron transfer. The N-H BDE is computationally estimated to be 75 kcal/mol.