Le but de ce travail de thèse, était, d'une part, d'étudier l'activité catalytique des nouveaux complexes de vanadium pour la fonctionnalisation oxydante d'alcanes (le méthane inclus) et, d'autre part, d'élargir l'étude aux complexes de fer dans l'esprit de modeler des enzymes monooxygénases. Deux polyoxomolybdates contenant des atomes de vanadium(V) ont été testés comme catalyseurs pour l'oxydation des alcanes utilisant de l'eau oxygénée et de l'air comme oxydants. Cinq nouveaux complexes de vanadium(IV) et (V) ont été synthétisés et analysés par les techniques spectroscopiques courantes (IR, RMN, MS), par microanalyses, et ses structures ont été obtenues lors des analyses par diffraction des rayons X. Ces complexes ont été testés comme catalyseurs pour l'oxydation des alcanes en utilisant de l'eau oxygénée et de l'air comme oxydants. Un nouveau système catalytique, qui utilise l'acide peroxyacetique comme oxydant et un composé de vanadium comme catalyseur, a été testé avec succès dans l'oxydation des alcanes, et l'étude cinétique complète nous a conduit à proposer un mécanisme catalytique. Trois sels de fer(III) ont été testés comme catalyseurs pour l'oxydation des alcanes et une étude cinétique complète a suggéré que le mécanisme catalytique n'était pas le même pour les trois sels. Deux complexes dinucléaires de fer(III) contenant des ligands chelatants N- et N, O- ont été aussi testés avec succès comme catalyseurs pour l'oxydation des alcanes avec de l'eau oxygénée et l'air comme oxydants. Les résultats obtenus concluent que ces deux complexes peuvent être considérés comme modèles fonctionnels pour des enzymes monooxygénases, comme le méthane monooxygénase et l'hémérythrine.

Vanadium is one of the more abundant elements in the Earth’s crust and exhibits a wide range of oxidation states in its compounds making it potentially a more sustainable and more economical choice as a catalyst than the noble metals. A wide variety of reactions have been found to be catalysed by homogeneous, supported and heterogeneous vanadium complexes and the number of applications is growing fast. Bringing together the research on the catalytic uses of this element into one essential resource, including theoretical perspectives on proposed mechanisms for vanadium catalysis and an overview of its relevance in biological processes, this book is a useful reference for industrial and academic chemists alike.

Since the classic work Metal-Catalyzed Oxidations of Organic Compounds (edited by R A Sheldon and J K Kochi, 1991), no book has been devoted to advances in the field of biomimetic oxidations, which was created nearly 18 years ago. This expanding research field is covered in this volume. All the different aspects of the modeling of oxidations catalyzed by metalloenzymes are dealt with.This invaluable book will be useful to postgraduates as well as researchers in academia and industry, and will also benefit second year university students.

The present work explores the reactivities of gaseous vanadium, vanadium-oxide, and oxovanadium-hydroxide clusters toward methanol and small hydrocarbons. Various means of mass-spectrometric techniques, isotopic labeling studies, infrared photodissociation spectroscopy, and complementary DFT-calculations are employed for this purpose. Additionally, the hydrogen-atom abstraction process from methane by polynuclear metal oxides is discussed. This work contributes to a better understanding of the metal-oxide cluster's catalytic activity on a molecular scale.

This monograph consists of the proceedings of the Fifth International Symposium on the Activation of Dioxygen and Homogeneous Catalytic Oxidation, held in College Station, Texas, March 14-19, 1993. It contains an introductory chapter authored by Professors D. H. R. Barton and D. T. Sawyer, and twenty-nine chapters describing presentations by the plenary lecturers and invited speakers. One of the invited speakers, who could not submit a manuscript for reasons beyond his control, is represented by an abstract of his lecture. Also included are abstracts of forty-seven posters contributed by participants in the symposium. Readers who may wish to know more about the subjects presented in abstract form are invited to communicate directly with the authors of the abstracts. This is the fifth international symposium that has been held on this subject. The first was hosted by the CNRS, May 21-29, 1979, in Bendor, France (on the Island of Bandol). The second meeting was organized as a NATO workshop in Padova, Italy, June 24-27, 1984. This was followed by a meeting in Tsukuba, Japan, July 12-16, 1987. The fourth symposium was held at Balatonfured, Hungary, September 10-14, 1990. The sixth meeting is scheduled to take place in Delft, The Netherlands (late Spring, 1996); the organizer and host will be Professor R. A. Sheldon.