Transition metal complexes hydroxamates

The complexing capacity of hydroxamic acids was predicted by Werner in 1908, who also indicated the metals most likely to form stable complexes.288 Since then, the formation of poorly soluble and intensely coloured hydroxamates has been used for analytical determinations for a number of metal ions, such as Fe3+, Mos+, Vs+ etc. A recent general review of transition metal complexes of hydroxamic adds included the few known examples of silver(I) complexes.289... 

The development of transition metal mediated asymmetric epoxidation started from the dioxomolybdcnum-/V-cthylcphcdrinc complex,4 progressed to a peroxomolybdenum complex,5 then vanadium complexes substituted with various hydroxamic acid ligands,6 and the most successful procedure may now prove to be the tetroisopropoxyltitanium-tartrate-mediated asymmetric epoxidation of allylic alcohols. 

A large volume of work64 has been published on the determination of stability constants for complexes of hydroxamic acids, e.g. acetohydroxamic acid.65 The stability of 3d transition metal ions (Mn2+ to Zn2+) with salicylhydroxamic and 5-methyl-, 5-chloro-, 5-bromo-, 5-nitro-, 4-chloro-, 4-bromo- and 3-chloro-salicylhydroxamic acids,66 as well as with methyltolylbenzohydroxamic acid,67 has been studied potentiometrically. Stability constants of iron(III) with a number of hydroxamic acids have been determined by redox potential studies.68... 

British Biotech has described co-crystal structures of both BB-3497 and actinonin bound in the active site of E. coli PDF [24]. The metal centre (Ni ) in both complexes adopts a pentacoordinate geometry, bound by the two oxygen atoms of the hydroxamate along with Cys-90, His-132 and His-136. This coordination pattern is consistent with the mechanism of de-formylation proposed by Becker et al. [56] and Jain et al. [67], in which a pentacoordinated metal centre stabilises the transition state during hydrolysis of the formamide bond. When compared to the co-crystal structure of a substrate hydrolysis product, Met-Ala-Ser, it is clear that the side chains of these two inhibitors bind into the active site pockets similarly to the substrate [56]. 

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