cis-1,2-Aminohydroxylation of Alkenes Involving a Catalytic Cycle of Osmium(III) and Osmium(V) Centers: OsV(O)(NHTs) Active Oxidant with a Macrocyclic Tetradentate Ligand

Catalytic activity of [OsIII(OH)­(H2O)­(L-N4Me2)]­(PF6)2 (1: L-N4Me2 = N,N′-dimethyl-2,11-diaza-[3,3]­(2,6)­pyridinophane) in 1,2-cis-aminohydroxylation of alkenes with sodium N-chloro-4-methylbenzenesulfonamide (chloramine-T) is explored. Simple alkenes as well as those containing several types of substituents are converted to the corresponding 1,2-aminoalcohols in modest to high yields. The aminoalcohol products have exclusively cis conformation with respect to the introduced −OH and −NHTs groups. The spectroscopic measurements including cold mass spectroscopic study of the reaction product of complex 1 and chloromine-T as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that an oxido–aminato–osmium­(V) species [OsV(O)­(NHTs)­(L-N4Me2)]­(PF6)2 (2) is an active oxidant for the aminohydroxylation. The DFT calculations further indicate that the reaction involves a [3 + 2] cycloaddition between 2 and alkene, and the regioselectivity in the aminohydroxylation of unsymmetrical alkenes is determined by the orientation that bears less steric hindrance from the tosylamino group, which leads to the energetically more preferred product isomer.