Copper-carbon dioxide complex, coordination

As many carbonate complexes are synthesized usually in aqueous solution under fairly alkaline conditions, the possibility of contamination by hydroxy species is often a problem. To circumvent this, the use of bicarbonate ion (via saturation of sodium carbonate solution with COj) rather than the carbonate ion can often avoid the precipitation of these contaminants. Many other synthetic methods use carbon dioxide as their starting point. Transition metal hydroxo complexes are, in general, capable of reacting with CO2 to produce the corresponding carbonate complex. The rate of CO2 uptake, which depends upon the nucleophilicity of the OH entity, proceeds by a mechanism that can be regarded as hydroxide addition across the unsaturated C02. There are few non-aqueous routes to carbonate complexes but one reaction (3), illustrative of a synthetic pathway of great potential, is that used to prepare platinum and copper complexes. Ruthenium and osmium carbonate complexes result from the oxidation of coordinated carbon monoxide by dioxygen insertion (4). ... 

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a zinc metalloenzyme involved in mammalian respiration, which catalyzes the hydration of carbon dioxide. Copper-complexed TPPC, competitively inhibits CA enzymatic activity as does copper-complexed TPPSj [32]. Experiments comparing the spectrophotometric characteristics of the two porphyrins in the presence of CA and apo-CA indicate that the zinc atoms in the active site of the enzyme are indeed involved in the interaction between the porphyrins and the enzyme. The metal-free porphyrins TPPSj and TPPC, do not inhibit the enzymatic activity of CA. Further, the spectrophotometric characteristics of these porphyrins in the presence of apo-CA were identical to those in the presence of wild-type CA, indicating the lack of involvement of the active site-coordinated zinc in the porphyrin-enzyme interaction for metal-free porphyrins. 

Carbon, 37 dioxide, 45 monoxide, 44 Complex compound, 51 Coordination number, 51 Copper complexes, 51, 53 Covalent bond, 6,25-31 Cyano complex, 52-54... 

---