Biomimetic oxidations at active sites of iron proteins involve peroxides, especially
hydrogen peroxide which is a strong and very convenient reagent since it is inexpensive
and does not release any toxic by-products. In many cases however, mother N
ature uses
molecular dioxygen to carry out major oxidation reactions in particularly attractive
conditions. The biomimetic interest of iron complexes in the tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine
series TPA is no longer to demonstrate. We prepared various α-substituted TPA-based
ligands with the idea to modulate the electronic properties at the metal centre. We then
checked the reactivity of a one example of complexes towards molecular dioxygen.