A preliminary investigation into a rationally designed catalytic system for the epoxidation of alkenes based on a bipyridyl core

A novel series of enantiomerically pure ligands, containing both pyridyl and 2,2′-bipyridyl moieties, derived from 2,6-dibromopyridine is reported, together with the synthesis of a number of manganese(II) complexes of the ligand library, four of which have been structurally characterised by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The efficacy of these complexes in the epoxidation of a range of alkene substrates is investigated principally using per acetic acid as the oxidant.

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