Polynuclear species of copper and iron as oxidation catalysts and types of active sites

Author(s)

Wendel Andrade Alves

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Conjunto das Químicas (IQ e FCF) (CQ/DBDCQ)
• Defense date: 2005-03-23

Examining board members

Ana Maria da Costa Ferreira; Yassuko Iamamoto; Paulo Sergio Santos; Humberto Osório Stumpf; Henrique Eisi Toma

• Advisor: Ana Maria da Costa Ferreira

Abstract

Different Schiff base copper(II) complexes containing an imidazole ligand were prepared as perchlorate, nitrate and chloride salts, and characterized by different techniques (UV/Vis, IR, EPR, Raman) and tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS), besides elemental analysis, conductivity measurements and magnetic properties. Some of these complexes, suitable crystals were isolated, allowing its structure to be determined by X-ray crystallography. Equilibria involving mono- and dinuclear species containing chloro-bridges were monitored in solution by EPR spectra, indicating a significant dependence on the solvent, and the counter-ion. In alkaline solution, deprotonation of the imidazole moiety promotes a self-assembled process, by coordination of the irnidazolate nitrogen atom to a copper(II) center of an adjacent unit, leading to the macrociclic or zig-zag-chain structures. These complexes were isolated and characterized by different spectroscopy techniques and magnetic susceptibility. The use of different bridging ligands and well-designed polydentate ligands afforded correlated structural features and exchange coupling constant in a series of di- e polinuclear copper(II) complexes. The magnetic parameters of these compounds were determined by temperaturedependent magnetic studies XM vs T, showing that the sign and the magnitude of the exchange coupling constant depends of the geometry, angle at the bridge, as well as on the bond length between paramagnetic ions, when compared with other complexes already described in the literature. The catalytic activity of the obtained complexes toward the usual biological oxidant, molecular oxygen, were then compared. Most of the di- and polynuclear compounds showed to be efficient catalysts of the aerobic oxidation of amines and o henolic substrates. Differinvg in some structural features, their tyrosinase-like catalytic activity was verified to be influenced by several factors, including steric hindrance of the ligands, cavity dimensions and accessibility of the oxidant to the catalytic center. A new biomimetic model system of the cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) derived from protohemin-IX and it contains a glycyl-L-histidine methyl ester arm axially binds the iron; the bis(benzimidazole) group acts as copper-coordinating site. has been prepared and characterized by different spectroscopic techniques, including EPR spectroscopy. The H2O2 addiction to the fully oxidised state of the system at -55ºC, or bubbling molecular oxygen into a CO-saturated solution of the reduced FeII/CuI state of the complex, resulted in a low spin oxygenated intermediate. (AU)