A Kinetic Study of the Conjugate Addition of Benzenethiol to Cyclic Enones Catalyzed by a Nonsymmetrical Uranyl-Salophen Complex Valeria van Axel Castelli, Antonella Dalla Cort, Luigi Mandolini,* Valentina Pinto, and Luca Schiaffino Dipartimento di Chimica and IMC-CNR, UniVersita` La Sapienza, 00185 Roma, Italy luigi.mandolini@uniroma1.it ReceiVed February 28, 2007 The Et 3 N-assisted addition of benzenethiol to enones in chloroform is catalyzed with high turnover efficiency by the phenyl-substituted uranyl-salophen compound 3. Catalytic data show a close adherence to a quatermolecular mechanism involving reaction of a base-activated thiol with a reversibly formed complex of enone and metal catalyst, with a complication of product inhibition due to the formation of a product-catalyst complex. The role of the binding energy made available by interactions with the aromatic sidearm of the catalyst is discussed in terms of catalyst-substrate and catalyst-transition state complementarity. Salophen ligands (salophen ) N,N′-phenylene salicylidene) are widely studied in coordination chemistry and have found application in supramolecular chemistry owing to the easy synthetic accessibility of a large variety of different structures. 1 In their robust complexes with the uranyl dication UO 2 2+ , the N 2 O 2 donor atoms occupy four of the five coordination sites of the uranium, while leaving the fifth position available for labile coordination of a monodentate ligand. 2 Such Lewis acid-base interaction provides the basis for the use of uranyl-salophen compounds as metalloreceptors 3 and metal- locatalysts. 4 Conjugate additions of thiols to activated olefins are biologi- cally relevant 5 and synthetically useful 6 reactions. We reported that uranyl-salophen compounds 1 and 2 catalyze with high turnover efficiency the tertiary amine assisted addition of benzenethiol to cyclic and acyclic enones and provided a detailed description of the complex kinetics. 4a-c The almost parallel pendants in 2 form a narrow cleft easily accessible by sterically unhindered, planar donor guests. 7 Attractive van der Waals interactions of the guest with the cleft walls enhance complex formation. 3b Association constants (Table 1) with a number of enones (4a-8a) and their phenylthio * To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +39 0649913624. Fax: +39 06490421. (1) Vigato, P. A.; Tamburini, S. Coord. Chem. ReV. 2004, 248, 1717- 2128. (2) (a) Sessler, J. L.; Melfi, P. J.; Pantos, G. D. Coord. Chem. ReV. 2006, 250, 816-843. (b) Ephritikhine, M. Dalton Trans. 2006, 2501- 2516. (3) (a) Antonisse, M. M. G.; Reinhoudt, D. N. Chem. Commun. 1998, 443-448. (b) van Axel Castelli, V.; Dalla Cort, A.; Mandolini, L.; Pinto, V.; Reinhoudt, D. N.; Ribaudo, F.: Sanna, C.; Schiaffino, L.; Snellink- Rue¨l, B. H. M. Supramol. Chem. 2002, 14, 211-219. (c) Dalla Cort, A.; Miranda Murua, J. I.; Pasquini, C.; Pons, M.; Schiaffino, L. Chem.sEur. J. 2004, 10, 3301-3307. (d) Cametti, M.; Nissinen, M.; Dalla Cort, A.; Mandolini, L.; Rissanen, K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 3831-3837. (e) Cametti, M.; Nissinen, M.; Dalla Cort, A.; Mandolini, L.; Rissanen, K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 3641-3648. (4) (a) van Axel Castelli, V.; Dalla Cort, A.; Mandolini, L.; Reinhoudt, D. N. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 12688-12689. (b) van Axel Castelli, V.; Dalla Cort, A.; Mandolini, L.; Reinhoudt, D. N.; Schiaffino, L. Chem.s Eur. J. 2000, 6, 1193-1198. (c) van Axel Castelli, V.; Dalla Cort, A.; Mandolini, L.; Reinhoudt, D. N.; Schiaffino, L. Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2003, 627-633. (d) Dalla Cort, A.; Mandolini, L.; Schiaffino, L. Chem. Commun. 2005, 3867-3869. (5) (a) Fluharty, A. L. In The Chemistry of the Thiol Group, Part 2; Patai, S., Ed.; Wiley: New York, 1974; p 589. (b) Jocelyn, P. C. In Biochemistry of the SH Group; Academic Press: London, 1972; p 98. For recent examples, see: (c) Lutolf, M.P.; Tirelli, N.; Cerritelli, S.; Colussi, L.; Hubbell, J. Bioconjugate Chem. 2001, 12, 1051-1056. (d) Schmidt, T. J.; Ak, M.; Mrowietz, U. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2007, 15, 333- 342. (6) For selected examples, see: (a) Adam, W.; Nava-Salgado, V. O. J. Org. Chem. 1995, 60, 578-584. (b) Michael, K.; Kessler, H. Tetrahedron Lett. 1996, 37, 3453-3456. (c) Sreekumar, R.; Rugmini, P.; Padma Kumar, R. Tetrahedron Lett. 1997, 38, 6557-6560. (d) Rohrig, S.; Hennig, L.; Findesein, M.; Welzel, P.; Frischmuth, K.; Marx, A.; Petronisch, T.; Koll, P.; Mu¨ller, D.; Mayer-Figge, H.; Sheldrich, W. S. Tetrahedron 1998, 54, 3413-3438. (e) Cheng, S.; Comer, D. D. Tetrahedron Lett. 2002, 43, 1179- 1181. (f) Heggli, M.; Tirelli, N.; Zisch, A.; Hubbell, J. A. 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