Publication Date:
2011-08-24
Description:
An efficient and selective four-electron plus four-proton (4e-/4H+) reduction of O2 to water by decamethylferrocene and trifluoroacetic acid can be catalyzed by a synthetic analog of the heme a3/CuB site in cytochrome c oxidase (6LFeCu) or its Cu-free version (6LFe) in acetone. A detailed mechanistic-kinetic study on the homogeneous catalytic system reveals spectroscopically detectable intermediates and that the rate-determining step changes from the O2-binding process at 25 °C room temperature (RT) to the O-O bond cleavage of a newly observed FeIII-OOH species at lower temperature (-60 °C). At RT, the rate of O2-binding to 6LFeCu is significantly faster than that for 6LFe, whereas the rates of the O-O bond cleavage of the FeIII-OOH species observed (-60 °C) with either the 6LFeCu or 6LFe catalyst are nearly the same. Thus, the role of the Cu ion is to assist the heme and lead to faster O2-binding at RT. However, the proximate Cu ion has no effect on the O-O bond cleavage of the FeIII-OOH species at low temperature.
Print ISSN:
0027-8424
Electronic ISSN:
1091-6490
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
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