Esters, coordinated Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis of peptides,84 amides,85 phosphate esters,86 sulfonate esters87 and acetals88 can also be metal catalyzed. The hydrolysis of a phosphate ester coordinated to cobalt(III) also occurs at an increased rate (Scheme 19).89 A rather similar reaction occurs in the amine exchange of coordinated dithiocarbamates (equation 21).90 The conversion of imidates to amidines has been mentioned previously and is a similar type of reaction (see Section 7.4.2.2.1). 

Hendry P, Sargeson AM. Metal ion promoted phosphate ester 43. hydrolysis. Intramolecular attack of coordinated hydroxide ion. 

Perhaps the most extensively studied catalytic reaction in acpreous solutions is the metal-ion catalysed hydrolysis of carboxylate esters, phosphate esters , phosphate diesters, amides and nittiles". Inspired by hydrolytic metalloenzymes, a multitude of different metal-ion complexes have been prepared and analysed with respect to their hydrolytic activity. Unfortunately, the exact mechanism by which these complexes operate is not completely clarified. The most important role of the catalyst is coordination of a hydroxide ion that is acting as a nucleophile. The extent of activation of tire substrate througji coordination to the Lewis-acidic metal centre is still unclear and probably varies from one substrate to another. For monodentate substrates this interaction is not very efficient. Only a few quantitative studies have been published. Chan et al. reported an equilibrium constant for coordination of the amide carbonyl group of... 

There are a few documented examples of studies of ligand effects on hydrolysis reactions. Angelici et al." investigated the effect of a number of multidentate ligands on the copper(II) ion-catalysed hydrolysis of coordinated amino acid esters. The equilibrium constant for binding of the ester and the rate constant for the hydrolysis of the resulting complex both decrease in the presence of ligands. Similar conclusions have been reached by Hay and Morris, who studied the effect of ethylenediamine... 

Inspired by the many hydrolytically-active metallo enzymes encountered in nature, extensive studies have been performed on so-called metallo micelles. These investigations usually focus on mixed micelles of a common surfactant together with a special chelating surfactant that exhibits a high affinity for transition-metal ions. These aggregates can have remarkable catalytic effects on the hydrolysis of activated carboxylic acid esters, phosphate esters and amides. In these reactions the exact role of the metal ion is not clear and may vary from one system to another. However, there are strong indications that the major function of the metal ion is the coordination of hydroxide anion in the Stem region of the micelle where it is in the proximity of the micelle-bound substrate. The first report of catalysis of a hydrolysis reaction by me tall omi cell es stems from 1978. In the years that... 

Recently, highly branched macromolecular polyamidoamine dendrimers have been prepared with Co11 bound where the metal ions have additional exchangeable coordination sites.450 These macromolecules show a capacity for catalyzing the hydrolysis of phosphate esters, presumably via intermediate bound phosphoester species. 

Amino acid esters act as chelates to Co111 for example, the /3-alanine isopropyl ester is known as both a chelate and as an /V-bonded monodentate,983 and the mechanism of hydrolysis of the ester, which is activated by coordination, to yield chelated /3-alanine has been closely examined. 

The crystal structure of the C-functionalized imidazole derivative of 1,5,9-triazcyclododecane (75) shows a five-coordinate zinc with four /V-donors from ligand and chloride in a distorted trigonal bipyramidal arrangement. The Zn—N imidazole bonds are the shortest at 2.025(3) A.678 Deprotonation of the imidazole group resulted in a bridging imidazolate to form dinuclear zinc complexes. The pATa of 10.3 varies from the pATa of bound water with similar ligands (as low as 7.3) and the complex is not catalytic for the hydrolysis of esters. 

The hydrolysis of esters by the nickel derivative (271) provided an early example of the use of a metal-capped cyclodextrin as a catalyst (shown here as its p-nitrophenyl acetate inclusion complex) (Breslow Overman, 1970 Breslow, 1971). The synthesis of this host involves the following steps (i) covalent binding of the pyridine dicarboxylic acid moiety to cyclodextrin, (ii) coordination of Ni(n) to this species, and (iii)... 

Nonadienoate (73) is used for the synthesis of another royal jelly acid, 2-decenedioic acid (146) (130). The terminal double bond was car-bonylated with Co2(CO)8 coordinated by pyridine. Linear ester was obtained in 80% selectivity. Hydrolysis and double-bond migration promoted by strong base produced royal jelly acid (146) as a crystalline compound. 

The higher coordinating ability and Lewis acidity of Zn(H) ion in addition to the low pK of the metal-bound water molecule and the appearance of this metal ion in native phosphatases inspired a number of research groups to develop Zn(II)-containing dinuclear artificial phosphatases. In contrast, very few model compounds have been published to mimic the activity of Fe(III) ion in dinuclear centers of phosphatase enzymes. Cu(II) or lanthanide ions are not relevant to natural systems but their chemical properties in certain cases allow extraordinarily high acceleration of phosphate-ester hydrolysis [as much as 108 for copper(II) or 1013 for lanthanide(III) ions]. 

Vanadium is beneficial and possibly essential for humans. It is certainly essential for a number of organisms. Vanadate (oxidation state V) and its derivatives are phosphate analogues, showing both ground state and transition state analogy (both structural and electronic) with phosphorus compounds. The analogy of five-coordinate vanadium compounds with the transition state of phosphate ester hydrolysis is well documented, and explains why so many vanadium compounds are potent inhibitors of phosphatases, ribonucleases and ATPases. 

Table 6.3 Effect of Metal Coordination on Rate Constants for Base Hydrolysis of Amino Acid Esters at 25 °C...

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