Dinuclear site reactivity

For the hydrolysis of phosphate esters under mild conditions, metal ions and metal complexes are the most efficient nonenzymatic reagents currently available. However, they do not reach the catalytic efficiency of enzymes, and higher reactivities are desirable in view of applications. To mimic enzymatic dinuclear sites is a strategy to generate more efficient artificial phosphoesterases. 

Almost simultaneously, a collaborative effort modeling the reactivity of dinuclear sites of iron oxidative enzymes was reported by Vincent et al. (27). Their dinuclear model, Fe20(0Ac)2Cl2(bipy)2, 5 (bipy 2,2 -bipyridine), synthesized by cleavage of tetrameric [Fe402(0Ac)7(bipy)2]+, 6, (equation 1), was especially designed to have open or exchangeable coordination sites. 

The high lability of bound N2 in [FeII(CN)5N2]3 regenerates the active site, namely the [FeII(CN)5H20]3 ion, which is able to further bind and process hydrazine. A more detailed kinetic study could be warranted for this interesting set of reactions. Some uncertainties still remain as to the nature of the intramolecular electron-transfer rate processes (91). At the employed concentration levels of the complex, the participation of mixtures of mononuclear and dinuclear complexes complicate the spectral evolution. Even the nature of the dinuclear intermediates (cyano- or hydrazino-bridged) could be put into question (probably both are involved, due to the labile interconversion equilibria). The participation of Fe(III) species, either in the mononuclear or dinuclear species, as reactive intermediate precursors of the formation of diazene and N2... 

Cyclic voltammetry has been also used for estimation of the rate constants for oxidation of water-soluble ferrocenes in the presence of HRP (131). There is a perfect match between the data obtained spectrophotometrically and electrochemically (Table IV), which proves that the cyclic voltammetry reveals information on the oxidation of ferrocenes by Compound II. It is interesting to note that an enzyme similar to HRP, viz. cytochrome c peroxidase, which catalyzes the reduction of H202 to water using two equivalents of ferrocytochrome c (133-136), is ca. 100 times more reactive than HRP (131,137). The second-order rate constant equals 1.4 x 106 M-1 s 1 for HOOCFc at pH 6.5 (131). There is no such rate difference in oxidation of [Fe(CN)e]4- by cytochrome c peroxidase and HRP (8). These comparisons should not however create an impression that the enzymatic oxidation of ferrocenes is always fast. The active-R2 subunit of Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase, which has dinuclear nonheme iron center in the active site, oxidizes ferrocene carboxylic acid and other water-soluble ferrocenes with a rate constant of... 

FeFe-enzyme - proton or hydrogen substrate binding and also the hydride-proton reaction exclusively occurs at the iron distal to the [4Fe-4S] cluster, suggesting that mononuclear iron complexes might also be viable catalysts. Consequently, Ott and coworkers have synthesized and characterized some stable pentacoordinated Fe(II) complexes with five ligands that nicely mimic the native ones and exhibit an open coordination site [163, 164]. This approach avoids the formation of the less reactive bridging hydrides that are found in the dinuclear complexes [153]. Catalytic H2 formation from weak acids at low overpotentials with promising TOF and catalyst stability could be demonstrated [164]. 

Systematic examination of the catalytic properties of dimeric complexes was initiated shortly after the identification of dinuclear iron sites in metalloenzymes. The first report of a reactive dimeric system came from Tabushi et al. in 1980, who examined the catalytic chemistry of [Fe3+(salen)]20, 1 (salen is N,N -(salicylaldehydo)-l,2-ethylenediamine) (12). They reported interesting stereoselectivity in the oxidation of unsaturated hydrocarbons with molecular oxygen in the presence of mercaptoethanol or ascorbic acid and pyridine as a solvent ([l]<<[alkane]<<[2-mercaptoethanol]). With adamantane as substrate, they observed the formation of a mixture of (1- and 2-) adamantols and adamantanone (Table I) (12). Both the relative reactivity between tertiary and secondary carbons (maximum value is 1.05) and final yield ( 12 turnovers per 12 hr) were dependent on the quantity of added 2-mercaptoethanol. Because autoxidation of adamantane gave a ratio of 3°/2° carbon oxidation of 0.18-0.42, the authors proposed two coexisting processes autooxidation and alkane activation. 

The pathway followed during these reactions appears different from that of the Gif system, because use of the same complexes under strict Gif conditions (pyridine-acetic acid-Zn powder) gives a different product ratio the same reactivity and selectivity is obtained for all monomeric and dimeric complexes (15-18). The reactivity observed with 2 is reminiscent of the chemistry of the dinuclear ferrous active site found in MMO, although their mechanistic similarities must still be demonstrated (19, 20). 

The possibility that Mn catalase possesses a dinuclear center raises the question of whether any synthetic dinuclear complexes can mimic the spectroscopic properties and reactivity of the biological site. A number of dinuclear complexes containing Mn(II), Mn(III), and/or Mn(IV) have been characterized by X-ray diffraction techniques. These... 

The goal of diiron model chemistry is to develop small molecule systems that accurately reproduce spectroscopic, structural, and more ambitiously, reactivity aspects of driron metaUoproteins. Despite being structurally similar, diiron enzymes carry out a variety of catalytic processes see Iron Proteins with Dinuclear Active Sites)Advancements in the synthesis and characterization of small molecule mimics for nonheme diiron enzymes have been tremendous in the last decade. Biomimetic studies have been carried out in efforts to reproduce the structural and functional aspects of these biocatalysts. Although this has been a challenging endeavor, much information regarding the structural and mechanistic aspects of catalytic intermediates has been obtained. 

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