Copper–oxygen adducts: new trends in characterization and properties towards C–H activation

Abstract

This review summarizes the latest discoveries in the field of C-H activation by copper monoxygenases and more particularly by their bioinspired systems. This work first describes the recent background on copper-containing enzymes along with additional interpretations about the nature of the active copper-oxygen intermediates. It then focuses on relevant examples of bioinorganic synthetic copper-oxygen intermediates according to their nuclearity (mono to polynuclear). This includes a detailed description of the spectroscopic features of these adducts as well as their reactivity towards the oxidation of recalcitrant C_sp³ -H bonds. The last part is devoted to the significant expansion of heterogeneous catalytic systems based on copper-oxygen cores (<i>i.e.</i> within zeolite frameworks).