Crystal Structure and C–H Bond-Cleaving Reactivity of a Mononuclear CoIV–Dinitrate Complex

High-valent FeIVO intermediates with a terminal metal–oxo moiety are key oxidants in many enzymatic and synthetic C–H bond oxidation reactions. While generating stable metal–oxo species for late transition metals remains synthetically challenging, notably, a number of high-valent non-oxo–metal species of late transition metals have been recently described as strong oxidants that activate C–H bonds. In this work, we obtained an unprecedented mononuclear CoIV–dinitrate complex (2) upon one-electron oxidation of its Co­(III) precursor supported by a tridentate dianionic N3 ligand. 2 was structurally characterized by X-ray crystallography, showing a square pyramidal geometry with two coordinated nitrate anions. Furthermore, characterization of 2 using combined spectroscopic and computational methods revealed that 2 is a low-spin (S = 1/2) Co­(IV) species with the unpaired electron located on the cobalt dz2 orbital, which is well positioned for substrate oxidations. Indeed, while having a high thermal stability, 2 is able to cleave sp3 C–H bonds up to 87 kcal/mol to afford rate constants and kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) of 2–6 that are comparable to other high-valent metal oxidants. The ability to oxidize strong C–H bonds has yet to be observed for CoIV–O and CoIIIO species previously reported. Therefore, 2 represents the first high-valent Co­(IV) species that is both structurally characterized by X-ray crystallography and capable of activating strong C–H bonds.