Synlett 2004(10): 1849-1850  
DOI: 10.1055/s-2004-829556
SPOTLIGHT
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Methyltrioxorhenium (MTO)

Gianluca Soldaini*
Dipartimento di Chimica Organica ”Ugo Schiff”, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Polo Scientifico, via della Lastruccia 13, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy
e-Mail: gsoldaini@unifi.it;
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Publikationsverlauf

Publikationsdatum:
15. Juli 2004 (online)

Introduction

Methyltrioxorhenium (1) is an important and versatile catalyst widely studied as an oxygen transfer reagent in oxidation reactions of a variety of substrates. [1] The important features of MTO as a catalyst are its ease of synthesis, commercial availability and stability to air. MTO was firstly synthesized by Beattie and Jones in 1979. [2] Sub­sequently, Herrmann et al. developed a more simple and ­efficient synthesis based on the reaction of dirhenium ­heptoxide with methyltributyltin. [3]

MTO (1) reacts with H2O2, the usual stoichiometric ­oxidant, to give equilibria with formation of monoperoxo- and diperoxo-rhenium(VII) species (2 and 3, respectively). [4] The latter confers a characteristic yellow color to the solution and it is the most reactive towards oxygen-accepting substrates.

The MTO/H2O2 system makes use of nontoxic reagents, the oxidation and work-up procedures are very simple, water is the only byproduct, and non-aqueous solvent can be used if UHP (urea-hydrogenperoxide adduct) is used instead of H2O2 as the stoichiometric oxidant.