Dechlorination of substituted trichloromethanes by an iron(II) porphyrin

Iron(II)porphyrins complex with many organochlorinecompounds and oxidizebydechlorinating them. For a series of trichloromethyl derivatives, CCl 3 R (R = NO 2 , CHCl 2 , CN, Cl, COO − , CH 3 , H, C(O)NH 2 , and CH 2 OH), heme oxidation occurred in two consecutive steps: heme‐CCl 3 R complexation, and (usually slower) inner‐sphere electron transfer. Stability of the intermediate CCl 2 R radical, which is strongly correlated with the ability of the R group to delocalize electron density, governed the overall electron transfer rate.