Electronic Structure of a CuII–Alkoxide Complex Modeling Intermediates in Copper-Catalyzed Alcohol Oxidations

In the copper-catalyzed oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes, a CuII-alkoxide (CuII–OR) intermediate is believed to modulate the αC–H bond strength of the deprotonated substrate to facilitate the oxidation. As a structural model for these intermediates, we characterized the electronic structure of the stable compound TptBuCuII(OCH2CF3) (TptBu = hydro-tris(3-tert-butyl-pyrazolyl)borate) and investigated the influence of the trifluoroethoxide ligand on the electronic structure of the complex. The compound exhibits an electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrum with an unusually large gzz value of 2.44 and a small copper hyperfine coupling Azz of 40 × 10–4 cm–1 (120 MHz). Single-crystal electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectra show that the unpaired spin population is highly localized on the copper ion (≈68%), with no more than 15% on the ethoxide oxygen. Electronic absorption and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectra show weak ligand-field transitions between 5000 and 12 000 cm–1 and an intens...