On The Mechanism of the Oxygen Transfer to Sulfoxides by Ti(IV)/Trialkanolamine/Peroxo Complexes. Evidence for a Metal Template Process

Oxidation of p-XC6H4SOMe (X = NC, F3C) by (alkylperoxo){tris[(2R)-2-hydroxy-2-phenylethyl]amine}titanium (2b ) has been shown to follow Michaelis-Menten kinetics demonstrating the occurrence of an intramolecular nucleophilic oxygen transfer to the TiIV-coordinated sulfoxide. The reaction of the titanium(IV) precursors 1 with sulfoxides has been studied by ESI-MS techniques together with ab initio calculations.