Regioselectivity in 2-Methylbutane Hydroxylation Mediated by FeO+ and FeO2+

Interactive Regulation between Aliphatic Hydroxylation and Aromatic Hydroxylation of Thaxtomin D in TxtC: A Theoretical Investigation

TxtC is an unusual bifunctional cytochrome P450 that is able to perform sequential aliphatic and aromatic hydroxylation of the diketopiperazine substrate thaxtomin D in two distinct sites to produce thaxtomin A. Though the X-ray structure of TxtC complexed with thaxtomin D revealed a binding mode for its aromatic hydroxylation, the preferential hydroxylation site is aliphatic C₁₄. It is thus intriguing to unravel how TxtC accomplishes such two-step catalytic hydroxylation on distinct aliphatic and aromatic carbons and why the aliphatic site is preferred in the hydroxylation step. In this work, by employing molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, we revealed that thaxtomin D could adopt two different conformations in the TxtC active site, which were equal in energy with either the aromatic C₂₀-H or aliphatic C₁₄-H pointing toward the active Cpd I oxyferryl moiety. Further ONIOM calculations indicated that the energy barrier for the rate-limiting hydroxylation step on the aliphatic C₁₄ site was 9.6 kcal/mol more favorable than that on the aromatic C₂₀ site. The hydroxyl group on the monohydroxylated intermediate thaxtomin B C₁₄ site formed hydrogen bonds with Ser280 and Thr385, which induced the l-Phe moiety to rotate around the C_β-C_γ bond of the 4-nitrotryptophan moiety. Thus, it adopted an energetically favorable conformation with aromatic C₂₀ adjacent to the oxyferryl moiety. In addition, the hydroxyl group induced solvent water molecules to enter the active site, which propelled thaxtomin B toward the heme plane and resulted in heme distortion. Based on this geometrical layout, the rate-limiting aromatic hydroxylation energy barrier decreased to 15.4 kcal/mol, which was comparable to that of the thaxtomin D aliphatic hydroxylation process. Our calculations indicated that heme distortion lowered the energy level of the lowest Cpd I α-vacant orbital, which promoted electron transfer in the rate-limiting thaxtomin B aromatic hydroxylation step in TxtC.

Methane selective oxidation to methanol by metal-exchanged zeolites: a review of active sites and their reactivity

A review of the recent progress in revealing the structures, formation, and reactivity of the active sites in Fe-, Co-, Ni- and Cu-exchanged zeolites as well as outlooks on future research challenges and opportunities is presented.

Benchmark study on methanol C-H and O-H bond activation by bare [Fe(IV)O](2+)

We present a high-level computational study on methanol C-H and O-H bond cleavages by bare [Fe(IV)O](2+), as well as benchmarks of various density functional theory (DFT) methods. We considered direct and concerted hydrogen transfer (DHT and CHT) pathways, respectively. The potential energy surfaces were constructed at the CCSD(T)/def2-TZVPP//B3LYP/def2-TZVP level of theory. Mechanistically, (1) the C-H bond cleavage is dominant and the O-H activation only plays minor role on the PESs; (2) the DHT from methyl should be the most practical channel; and (3) electronic structure analysis demonstrates the proton and electron transfer coupling behavior along the reaction coordinates. The solvent effect is evident and plays distinct roles in regulating the two bond activations in different mechanisms during the catalysis. The effect of optimizing the geometries using different density functionals was also studied, showing that it is not meaningful to discuss which DFT method could give the accurate prediction of the geometries, especially for transition structures. Furthermore, the gold-standard CCSD(T) method was used to benchmark 19 different density functionals with different Hartree-Fock exchange fractions. The results revealed that (i) the structural factor plays a minor role in the single point energy (SPE) calculations; (ii) reaction energy prediction is quite challenging for DFT methods; (iii) the mean absolute deviations (MADs) reflect the problematic description of the DFs when dealing with metal oxidation state change, giving a strong correlation on the HF exchange in the DFs. Knowledge from this study should be of great value for computational chemistry, especially for the de novo design of transition metal catalysts.

Oxidative properties of FeO2+: electronic structure and solvation effects

An electronic structure analysis is provided of the action of solvated FeO(2+), [FeO(H(2)O)(5)](2+), as a hydroxylation catalyst. It is emphasized that the oxo end of FeO(2+) does not form hydrogen bonds (as electron donor and H-bond acceptor) with H-bond donors nor with aliphatic C-H bonds, but it activates C-H bonds as an electron acceptor. It is extremely electrophilic, to the extent that it can activate even such poor electron donors as aliphatic C-H bonds, the C-H bond orbital acting as electron donor in a charge transfer type of interaction. Lower lying O-H bonding orbitals are less easily activated. The primary electron accepting orbital in a water environment is the 3sigma*alpha orbital, an antibonding combination of Fe-3d(z(2)) and O-2p(z), which is very low-lying relative to the pi*alpha compared with, for example, the sigma* orbital in O(2) relative to its pi*. This is ascribed to relatively small Fe-3d(z(2)) with O-2p(z) overlap, due to the nodal structure of the 3d(z(2)).The H-abstraction barrier is very low in the gas phase, but it is considerably enhanced in water solvent. This is shown to be due to strong screening effects of the dielectric medium, leading to relative destabilization of the levels of the charged [FeO(H(2)O)(5)](2+) species compared to those of the neutral substrate molecules, making it a less effective electron acceptor. The solvent directly affects the orbital interactions responsible for the catalytic reaction.

Influence of solvent and counter ion on complexes of 2,5-bis(2-pyridyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole with iron (II) and (III) studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

The effect of solvent and counter ion on the complexes of 2,5-bis(2-pyridyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole (1) with Fe+2 and Fe+3 has been studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI/MS). As expected, upon ESI conditions the metal reduction proceeds, but it can be deduced that complexes with Fe+2 are favored over those with Fe+3. When methanol is used as solvent, the formation of complexes of stoichiometry 2:1 and 1:1 with counter ion attached (monovalent anion) is favored, for example, [1(2)+FeCl]+ ion. The use of methanol/water (1/1) as solvent favors the formation of complexes of stoichiometry 2:1 and 3:1, namely doubly charged [1(2)+Fe]+2 and [1(3)+Fe]+2 ions. The complexes containing anion of oxidative properties (ClO4-, NO3-), when the higher cone voltage is applied, yield unusual species [1n+FeOm]+ (n=1, 2; m=1, 2). The use of divalent counter ion (SO4(-2)) resulted in formation of complexes containing two iron cations, namely [1n+Fe2SO4]+2 (n=2, 3, 4) ions. These ions can be regarded as Fe-1 complexes bridged by a sulfate anion.

A theoretical study of reactivity and regioselectivity in the hydroxylation of adamantane by ferrate(VI)

The conversion of adamantane to adamantanols mediated by ferrate (FeO(4)(2)(-)), monoprotonated ferrate (HFeO(4)(-)), and diprotonated ferrate (H(2)FeO(4)) is discussed with the hybrid B3LYP density functional theory (DFT) method. Diprotonated ferrate is the best mediator for the activation of the C-H bonds of adamantane via two reaction pathways, in which 1-adamantanol is formed by the abstraction of a tertiary hydrogen atom (3 degrees ) and 2-adamantanol by the abstraction of a secondary hydrogen atom (2 degrees ). Each reaction pathway is initiated by a C-H bond cleavage via an H-atom abstraction that leads to a radical intermediate, followed by a C-O bond formation via an oxygen rebound step to lead to an adamantanol complex. The activation energies for the C-H cleavage step are 6.9 kcal/mol in the 1-adamantanol pathway and 8.4 kcal/mol in the 2-adamantanol pathway, respectively, at the B3LYP/6-311++G level of theory, whereas those of the second reaction step corresponding to the rebound step are relatively small. Thus, the rate-determining step in the two pathways is the C-H bond dissociation step, which is relevant to the regioselectivity for adamantane hydroxylation. The relative rate constant (3 degrees )/(2 degrees ) for the competing H-atom abstraction reactions is calculated to be 9.30 at 75 degrees C, which is fully consistent with an experimental value of 10.1.

A theoretical study on the mechanism of camphor hydroxylation by compound I of cytochrome p450

Mechanistic and energetic aspects for the conversion of camphor to 5-exo-hydroxycamphor by the compound I iron-oxo species of cytochrome P450 are discussed from B3LYP DFT calculations. This reaction occurs in a two-step manner along the lines that the oxygen rebound mechanism suggests. The activation energy for the first transition state of the H atom abstraction at the C5 atom of camphor is computed to be more than 20 kcal/mol. This H atom abstraction is the rate-determining step in this hydroxylation reaction, leading to a reaction intermediate that involves a carbon radical species and the iron-hydroxo species. The second transition state of the rebound step that connects the reaction intermediate and the product alcohol complex lies a few kcal/mol below that for the H atom abstraction on the doublet and quartet potential energy surfaces. This energetic feature allows the virtually barrierless recombination in both spin states, being consistent with experimentally observed high stereoselectivity and brief lifetimes of the reaction intermediate. The overall energetic profile of the catalytic mechanism of camphor hydroxylation particularly with respect to why the high activation energy for the H atom abstraction is accessible under physiological conditions is also considered and calculated. According to a proton source model involving Thr252, Asp251, and two solvent water molecules (Biochemistry 1998, 37, 9211), the energetics for the conversion of the iron-peroxo species to compound I is studied. A significant energy over 50 kcal/mol is released in the course of this dioxygen activation process. The energy released in this chemical process is an important driving force in alkane hydroxylation by cytochrome P450. This energy is used for the access to the high activation energy for the H atom abstraction.