Thermodynamic aspects of the Ru(III)-EDTA-ascorbate-molecular oxygen system for the oxidation of saturated and unsaturated organic compounds

Abstract

The activation and thermodynamic parameters corresponding to rate and equilibrium constants, respectively, for the homogeneous oxidation of the saturated substrates, cyclohexane to cyclohexanol, cyclohexanol to cis-1,3-cyclohexane diol and olefin, cyclohexene to epoxide by Ru(III)-EDTA-ascorbate---O₂ system were determined by measuring the various rates and equilibrium constants at four different temperatures in the range 288-313 K and μ=0.1 M KNO₃ in a 50% (V/V) mixture of 1,4-dioxane and water in acidic medium. The kinetics of the oxidation of these substrates at each particular temperature was studied as a function of the concentration, the substrates, hydrogen ion, catalyst, ascorbic acid and molecular oxygen. The orders of the reaction in cyclohexanol and cyclohexene concentrations are one, and those in cyclohexane and hydrogen ion concentration are fractional and inverse first-order, respectively. For all substrates the reaction is first order with respect to the concentrations of molecular oxygen, ascorbic acid and catalyst. The source of the oxygen atom transferred to the substrates was confirmed by ¹⁸O₂ isotope studies in which the ¹⁸O was incorporated in the oxidized products. The kinetics and solvent isotope effect were studied for the oxidation of C₆H₁₂, C₆D₁₂, C₆H₁₁OH and C₆D₁₁ OD. The order of the reactivity observed in the oxidation of the substrates studied is cyclohexene > cyclohexanol > cyclohexane. A comparison of the rates of oxidation of the substrates and the corresponding activation parameters with the catalytic systems Ru(III)-EDTA---O₂ and Ru(III)-EDTA-ascorbate---H₂O₂ indicated that activation parameters become more favourable in the presence of ascorbic acid, where the system acts as a mono-oxygenase and the activation energies are drastically reduced. Highly negative entropies are associated with all oxygen atom transfer reactions, indicating that the oxidation process is associative in nature.