Kinetics and mechanism of the reaction of hydrogen sulfide with diaquacobinamide in aqueous solution

We conducted a detailed kinetic study of the reaction of the vitamin B12 analog diaquacobinamide ((H2O)2Cbi(III)) with hydrogen sulfide in water from pH 3 to 11. The reaction proceeds in three steps: (i) formation of three different complexes between cobinamide and hydrogen sulfide, viz. (HO-)(HS-)Cbi(III), (H2O)(HS-)Cbi(III), and (HS-)2Cbi(III); (ii) inner-sphere electron transfer (ISET) in the two complexes with one coordinated HS- to form the reduced cobinamide complex [(H)S]Cbi(II); and (iii) addition of a second molecule of hydrogen sulfide to the reduced cobinamide. ISET does not proceed in the (HS-)2Cbi(III) complex. The final products of the reaction between cobinamide and hydrogen sulfide were found to be independent of pH, with the main product being a complex of cobinamide(II) with the anion-radical SSH2-.

Kinetic and thermodynamic studies on ligand substitution reactions and base-on/base-off equilibria of cyanoimidazolylcobamide, a vitamin B12 analog with an imidazole axial nucleoside

Ligand substitution reactions of the vitamin B12 analog cyanoimidazolylcobamide, CN(Im)Cbl, with cyanide were studied. Cyanide substitutes imidazole (Im) in the alpha-position more slowly than it substitutes dimethylbenzimidazole in cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12). The kinetics of the displacement of Im by CN- showed saturation behaviour at high cyanide concentration; the limiting rate constant was found to be 0.0264 s(-1) at 25 degrees C and is characterized by the activation parameters: DeltaH(not =) = 111 +/- 2 kJ mol(-1), DeltaS(not =) = +97 +/- 6 J K(-1) mol(-1), and DeltaV(not =) = +9.3 +/- 0.3 cm3 mol(-1). These parameters are interpreted in terms of an I(d) mechanism. The equilibrium constant for the reaction of CN(Im)Cbl with CN- was found to be 861 +/- 75 M(-1), which is significantly less than that obtained for the reaction of cyanocobalamin with CN- (viz. 10(4) M(-1)). pKbase-off for the base-on/base-off equilibrium was determined spectrophotometrically and found to be 0.99 +/- 0.05, which is about 0.9 pH units higher than that obtained previously in the case of cyanocobalamin. In addition, the kinetics of the base-on/base-off reaction was studied using a pH-jump technique and the data obtained revealed evidence for an acid catalyzed reaction path. The results obtained in this study are discussed in reference to those reported previously for cyanocobalamin.