Isolation, Characterization of an Intermediate in an Oxygen Atom-Transfer Reaction, and the Determination of the Bond Dissociation Energy

The synthesis and structure of a phosphine oxide-bound intermediate molecule originating from a dioxo−molybdenum(VI) complex is described. The loss of phosphine oxide has been followed by surface-induced dissociation mass spectrometry that gave the bond dissociation energy of 29.5 (± 3.5) kcal/mol. Considering the bond dissociation energy for a MoO bond to be 100 kcal/mol, this value suggests that the primary driving force for the reaction is the formation of the intermediate complex.