title: A kinetic study of the conjugate addition of benzenethiol to cyclic enones catalyzed by a nonsymmetrical uranyl-salophen complex.
abstract: The Et3N-assisted addition of benzenethiol to enones in chloroform is catalyzed with high turnover efficiency by the phenyl-substituted uranyl-salophen compound 3. Catalytic data show a close adherence to a quatermolecular mechanism involving reaction of a base-activated thiol with a reversibly formed complex of enone and metal catalyst, with a complication of product inhibition due to the formation of a product-catalyst complex. The role of the binding energy made available by interactions with the aromatic sidearm of the catalyst is discussed in terms of catalyst-substrate and catalyst-transition state complementarity.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica and IMC-CNR, Università La Sapienza, 00185 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: van Axel Castelli
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dalla Cort
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mandolini
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pinto
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schiaffino