Dendritic Iron Porphyrins with Tethered Axial Ligands: New Model Compounds for Cytochromes

Dendritic receptors designed to bind polyanions in both organic and aqueous media

This paper reports the synthesis of dendrons containing a spermine unit at their focal point. The dendritic branching is based on l-lysine building blocks, and has terminal oligo(ethyleneglycol) units on the surface. As a consequence of the solubilising surface groups, these dendrons have high solubility in solvents with widely different polarities (e.g., dichloromethane and water). The protonated spermine unit at the focal point is an effective anion binding fragment and, as such, these dendrons are able to bind to polyanions. This paper demonstrates that polyanions can be bound in both dichloromethane (using a dye solubilisation assay) and in water (competitive ATP binding assay). In organic media the dendritic branching appears to have a pro-active effect on the solubilisation of the dye, with more dye being solubilised by higher generations of dendron. On the other hand, in water the degree of branching has no impact on the anion binding process. We propose that in this case, the spermine unit is effectively solvated by the bulk solvent and the dendritic branching does not need to play an active role in assisting solubility. Dendritic effects on anion binding have therefore been elucidated in different solvents. The dendritic branching plays a pro-active role in providing the anion binding unit with good solubility in apolar solvent media.

Built-in Axial Base Binding on Phenanthroline-Strapped Zinc(II) and Iron(III) Porphyrins

In addition to the need for functional models of cytochrome c oxidase, structural models are still required for a better understanding of the small reorganizations occurring during the catalytic cycle. An efficient synthetic approach has been designed to prepare several phenanthroline-strapped porphyrins, two of them bearing two pendant imidazoles. These built-in bases are both potentially able to act as axial bases for the metalloporphyrin and as complementary ligands for copper if necessary. Diamagnetic zinc(II) was used to demonstrate that the distal/proximal selectivity demonstrated by exogenic bases binding studies can be extended to the coordination of iron(III). Combination of EPR and paramagnetic 1H NMR shows that the imidazole binding on the zinc species can be further extended to the iron(III) species in dilute conditions.

Synthesis of 9- and 27-Armed Tetrakis(diperoxotungsto)phosphate-Cored Dendrimers and Their Use as Recoverable and Reusable Catalysts in the Oxidation of Alkenes, Sulfides, and Alcohols with Hydrogen Peroxide

A series of 3- and 9-armed dendrons, functionalized at the focal position to quaternary ammonium salts, were synthesized and characterized. The reaction of these ammonium dendrons with the heteropolyacid H(3)PW(12)O(40) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide led to a family of 9- and 27-armed air-stable polyoxometalate (POM)-cored dendrimers containing a catalytically active trianionic POM species [PO(4)[WO(O(2))(2)](4)](3-) in the core. These POM-cored dendrimers are air-stable, efficient, recoverable, and reusable catalysts for the selective oxidation of alkenes to epoxides, sulfides to sulfones, and alcohols to ketones, in an aqueous/CDCl(3) biphasic system with hydrogen peroxide as the primary oxidant. A study of the countercation effects showed that the dendritic structure increased the stability of the POM species and facilitated the recovery of the catalyst up to the eighth cycle, whereas the increased bulkiness around the POM center led to a negative kinetic dendritic effect. Within the 9-armed POM-cored dendrimer series, the reaction kinetics were susceptible to the nature of the peripheral endgroups. Indeed, the 9-armed n-propyl-terminated POM-cored dendrimer was identified as the most active catalyst. In addition, the results obtained with POM-cored dendrimers versus tetraalkylammonium POMs ([[n-(C(8)H(17))(3)NCH(3)](+)](3)[PO(4)[WO(O(2))(2)](4)](3-) and [[nC(18)H(37)(75 %) + nC(16)H(33)(25 %)](2)N(CH(3))(2)](+)](3)[PO(4)[WO(O(2))(2)](4)](3-)) clearly reveal that the dendritic structures are more stable than their nondendritic counterparts. After the reactions were complete, the dendrimer catalysts were easily recovered and recycled without a discernable lost of activity, whereas attempts to recover tetraalkylammonium POMs gave unsatisfactory results. A significant advantage of the dendritic structures is that they enable the recovery and recyclability of the POM catalyst, in contrast to the other tetraalkylammonium POMs.

Supramolecular chemistry of dendrimers with functional cores

Dendritic microenvironments are analogous to local environments created within protein superstructures. Correspondingly, properties of functional cores such as molecular recognition and catalytic activity are profoundly influenced by the surrounding dendritic branches.