Manganese- and Lanthanide-Based 1D Chiral Coordination Polymers as an Enantioselective Catalyst for Sulfoxidation

The chiral 1D-coordination polymers (CP) {[Ln2(MnLCl)2(NO3)2(dmf)6(H2O)2]·xH2O}n [Ln = Pr (1), Nd (2), Sm (3), and Gd (4)] were synthesized by the reaction of N,N'-bis(4-carboxysalicylidene)cyclohexanediamine (H4L) with [MnCl2·4(H2O)] and [Ln(NO3)3·x(H2O)] in the presence of dmf/pyridine at 90 °C. The polymers consist of manganese-salen-based moieties having carboxylate linkers connected to rare earth atoms in a 1D-chain structure. The polymers are very easily accessible. A one-step synthesis for the ligand and a second step for the preparation of the 1D coordination polymers starting from commercially available material are needed. The solid state structures of 1-4 were established by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Compounds 1-4 were investigated as heterogeneous catalysts for the sulfoxidation reaction of various alkyl and aryl sulfides. The influence of various solvents and oxidizing agents on the catalytic reaction was examined. It was found that the catalysts were active for more than one reaction cycle without significant loss of activity. For phenylsulfide with 1 mol % of the catalyst 4, a maximum conversion 100% and a chemoselectivity 88% were observed.