Nucleophilic reactivity of a copper(II)-hydroperoxo complex

Copper(II)-hydroperoxo species are often detected as key intermediates in metalloenzymes and biomimetic compounds containing copper. However, the only reactivity has previously been observed for the copper(II)-hydroperoxo complexes is electrophilic, occurring through O-O bond cleavage. Here we report that a mononuclear end-on copper(II)-hydroperoxo complex, which has been successfully characterized by various physicochemical methods including UV-vis, rRaman, CSI-MS and EPR, is a reactive oxidant that utilizes a nucleophilic mechanism. In addition, DFT calculations fully support the electronic structure of this complex as a copper(II)-hydroperoxo complex with trigonal bipyramidal coordination geometry. A positive Hammett ρ value (2.0(3)) is observed in the reaction of copper(II)-hydroperoxo complex with para-substituted acyl chlorides, which clearly indicates nucleophilic character for the copper(II)-hydroperoxo complex. The copper(II)-hydroperoxo complex is an especially reactive oxidant in aldehyde deformylation with 2-PPA and CCA relative to the other metal-bound reactive oxygen species reported so far. The observation of nucleophilic reactivity for a copper(II)-hydroperoxo species expands the known chemistry of metal-reactive oxygen species.