ABSTRACT
The stable compound CH3ReO3 (MTO), upon treatment with aqueous hypophosphorous acid, forms a colorless metastable species designated MDO, CH3ReO2(H2O)n (n = 2). After standing, MDO is first converted to a yellow dimer (lambda max = 348 nm; epsilon = 1.3 x 10(4) L mol-1 cm-1). That reaction follows second-order kinetics with k = 1.4 L mol-1 s-1 in 0.1 M aq trifluoromethane sulfonic acid at 298 K. Kinetics studies as functions of temperature gave delta S++ = -4 +/- 15 J K-1 mol-1 and delta H++ = 71.0 +/- 4.6 kJ mol-1. A much more negative value of delta S++ would be expected for simple dimerization, suggesting the release of one or more molecules of water in forming the transition state. If solutions of the dimer are left for a longer period, an intense blue color results, followed by precipitation of a compound that does, even after a long time, retain the Re-CH3 bond in that aq. hydrogen peroxide generates the independently known CH3Re(O)(O2)2(H2O). The blue compound may be analogous to the intensely colored purple cation [(Cp*Re)3(mu 2-O)3(mu 3-O)3ReO3]+. If a pyridine N-oxide is added to the solution of the dimer, it is rapidly but not instantaneously lost at the same time that a catalytic cycle, separately monitored by NMR, converts the bulk of the PyO to Py according to this stoichiometric equation in which MDO is the active intermediate: C5H5NO + H3PO2-->C5H5N + H3PO3. A thorough kinetic study and the analysis by mathematical and numerical simulations show that the key step is the conversion of the dimer D into a related species D* (presumably one of the two mu-oxo bonds has been broken); the rate constant is 5.6 x 10(-3) s-1. D* then reacts with PyO just as rapidly as MDO does. This scheme is able to account for the kinetics and other results.
