Iron porphyrins, reductions potentials

DoeffMA, Sweigart DA, O Brien P (1983) Hydrogen bonding from coordinated imidazole in ferric porphyrin complexes. Effect on the iron(lll)/iron(ll) reduction potential. Inoig Chem 22 851-852... 

Two dendrimers based on Fe-porphyrin core carrying peptide-like branches of different sizes have been synthesized in order to have more open and a more densely packed (23) structures [43]. The electrochemical behavior has been examined in CH2C12 and in aqueous solution. In the less polar solvent, the two dendrimers show similar potentials for the Fem/Fen couple, suggesting that the iron porphyrins in both the more open and the more densely packed dendrimers experience similar microenvironments. On the contrary, in water the behavior of the two dendrimers is very different since the reduction from Fem to Fe11 is much easier for the densely packed dendrimer. This result can be explained considering that in the dendrimer with the relatively open structure the aqueous solvation of the iron porphyrin is still possible, whereas in the densely packed one the contact between the heme and the external solvent is signifi-... 

TABLE 12. Reduction potentials of porphyrin-iron carbonyl complexes of germanium and tin in CH2CI2 with TBA(PF<5), 0.1 M, on Au electrodes vs SCEa... 

The energetics of peptide-porphyrin interactions and peptide ligand-metal binding have also been observed in another self-assembly system constructed by Huffman et al. (125). Using monomeric helices binding to iron(III) coproporphyrin I, a fourfold symmetric tetracarboxylate porphyrin, these authors demonstrate a correlation between the hydropho-bicity of the peptide and the affinity for heme as well as the reduction potential of the encapsulated ferric ion, as shown in Fig. 12. These data clearly demonstrate that heme macrocycle-peptide hydrophobic interactions are important for both the stability of ferric heme proteins and the resultant electrochemistry. 

The metal-centered reduction of iron and cobalt porphyrins [(por)Afn] yields metalloporphyrin anions [Eq. (13.13)]. The reduction potential for this reaction is 13, and is equivalent to the N- value for the oxidation of the metal-centered nucleophile [(por)uM-]. The one-electron reduction of alkyl halides yields the... 

Other biomimetic reactions are based on the catalytic properties of metal ions. Many enzymes require metal ions that function, in one way or another, in oxidation-reduction processes. The wide range of such metal-ion reactions precludes mentioning more than a few in addition to the iron-porphyrin class, and in addition to chlorophyll, a number of enzymes require cobalamin as cofactor ferridoxin and high-potential iron proteins require iron-sulfur clusters, and nitrog-... 

An obvious choice for the construction of artificial oxygen binding mimics is the use of oxidisible transition metal (particularly iron) complexes of porphyrin ligands such as 12.23, as in the natural system. In such cases, the O2 affinity is governed essentially by the reduction potential of the metal centre (Ej) as in the reaction + e = M +. Iron(ll) and cobalt(ll) are particularly favourable in... 

The quite remarkable chemistry of iron proteins is reflected by the fact that the square planar tetradentate porphyrin (XXXXVI) is coordinated to Fe in many different proteins but these molecules show such diverse behaviour as oxygen transport, electron transport and catalytic reactivity in metalloenzymes. The protein must be responsible, by providing the other ligand(s) and by general environmental (cf. solvent) effects, for the differences in reduction potential and chemical reactivity of complexes of the various iron porphyrin systems. 

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