Mechanistic studies on oxidation of nitrite by a {Mn3O4}4+ core in aqueous acidic media

Electrostatic effects on proton coupled electron transfer in oxomanganese complexes inspired by the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II

The influence of electrostatic interactions on the free energy of proton coupled electron transfer in biomimetic oxomanganese complexes inspired by the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII) are investigated. The reported study introduces an enhanced multiconformer continuum electrostatics (MCCE) model, parametrized at the density functional theory (DFT) level with a classical valence model for the oxomanganese core. The calculated pKa's and oxidation midpoint potentials (E(m)'s) match experimental values for eight complexes, indicating that purely electrostatic contributions account for most of the observed couplings between deprotonation and oxidation state transitions. We focus on pKa's of terminal water ligands in [Mn(II/III)(H2O)6](2+/3+) (1), [Mn(III)(P)(H2O)2](3-) (2, P = 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(2,6-dichloro-3-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrinato), [Mn2(IV,IV)(μ-O)2(terpy)2(H2O)2](4+) (3, terpy = 2,2':6',2″-terpyridine), and [Mn3(IV,IV,IV)(μ-O)4(phen)4(H2O)2](4+) (4, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline) and the pKa's of μ-oxo bridges and Mn E(m)'s in [Mn2(μ-O)2(bpy)4] (5, bpy = 2,2'-bipyridyl), [Mn2(μ-O)2(salpn)2] (6, salpn = N,N'-bis(salicylidene)-1,3-propanediamine), [Mn2(μ-O)2(3,5-di(Cl)-salpn)2] (7), and [Mn2(μ-O)2(3,5-di(NO2)-salpn)2] (8). The analysis of complexes 6-8 highlights the strong coupling between electron and proton transfers, with any Mn oxidation lowering the pKa of an oxo bridge by 10.5 ± 0.9 pH units. The model also accounts for changes in the E(m)'s by ligand substituents, such as found in complexes 6-8, due to the electron withdrawing Cl (7) and NO2 (8). The reported study provides the foundation for analysis of electrostatic effects in other oxomanganese complexes and metalloenzymes, where proton coupled electron transfer plays a fundamental role in redox-leveling mechanisms.

Kinetics and mechanism of the oxidation of hydroxylamine by a {Mn3O4}4+ core in aqueous acidic media

In this work we report the kinetics of oxidation of hydroxylamine by a trinuclear Mn(IV) oxidant, [Mn(3)(μ-O)(4)(phen)(4)(H(2)O)(2)](4+) (1, phen = 1,10-phenanthroline), in aqueous solution over a pH range 2.0-4.0. The trinuclear Mn(IV) species (1) deprotonates in aqueous solution at physiological pH: 1 ⇌ 2 + H(+); pK(1) = 4.00 (± 0.15) at 25.0 °C, I = 1.0 (M) NaNO(3). Both 1 and 2 are reactive oxidants reacting with the conjugate acid of hydroxylamine, viz. NH(3)OH(+) where the deprotonated oxidant 2 reacts faster. This finding is in contrast to a common observation and belief that protonated oxidants react quicker than their deprotonated analogues. Mn(IV)(3) to Mn(II) transition in the present reaction proceeds through the intervention of a spectrally detected mixed-valent Mn(III)Mn(IV) dimer that quickly collapses to Mn(II). The rate of the reaction was found to be lowered in D(2)O-enriched media in comparison to that in pure H(2)O media. An initial one electron one proton transfer to Mn(IV)(3) (electroprotic; 1e, 1H(+)) could be mechanistically conceived as the rate step. We also demonstrate by means of high level DFT studies that, among the two sets of Mn(IV) atoms in the trinuclear oxidant, the unique one that is coordinated with two phen ligands and two oxo-bridges is reduced to Mn(III) at the rate step. This is explained based on energetic and spin density calculations. Moreover, this result agrees with the charge distribution on the Mn atoms of the trinuclear complex.

[(H2O)(terpy)Mn(mu-O)2Mn(terpy)(OH2)](NO3)3 (terpy = 2,2':6,2''-terpyridine) and its relevance to the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II examined through pH dependent cyclic voltammetry

Photosynthetic water oxidation occurs naturally at a tetranuclear manganese center in the photosystem II protein complex. Synthetically mimicking this tetramanganese center, known as the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC), has been an ongoing challenge of bioinorganic chemistry. Most past efforts have centered on water-oxidation catalysis using chemical oxidants. However, solar energy applications have drawn attention to electrochemical methods. In this paper, we examine the electrochemical behavior of the biomimetic water-oxidation catalyst [(H(2)O)(terpy)Mn(mu-O)(2)Mn(terpy)(H(2)O)](NO(3))(3) [terpy = 2,2':6',2''-terpyridine] (1) in water under a variety of pH and buffered conditions and in the presence of acetate that binds to 1 in place of one of the terminal water ligands. These experiments show that 1 not only exhibits proton-coupled electron-transfer reactivity analogous to the OEC, but also may be capable of electrochemical oxidation of water to oxygen.

Reaction of hydrogen peroxide with coordinated superoxide in [(NH3)5CoIII(micro-O2)CoIII(NH3)5]5+: a mechanistic study

In aqueous acetate buffer media, hydrogen peroxide reduces the bridging superoxide in [(NH3)5CoIII(micro-O2)CoIII(NH3)5]5+ (1) to the corresponding peroxide in the complex, [(NH3)5CoIII(micro-O2H)CoIII(NH2)(NH3)4]4+ (2), itself being oxidized to HO2*. The complex 2 thus produced decomposes rapidly to the final products, CoII, NH3, etc. instead of reacting with a second molecule of hydrogen peroxide. In the presence of excess [H2O2] over (1), the reaction obeyed first-order kinetics and exhibited inverse proton dependence. [(NH3)5CoIII(micro-O2)CoIII((NH2)(NH3)4]4+ (3), a conjugate base of 1, seems to be the kinetically reactive species and the cause for the observed inverse proton dependence. Kinetics is little affected when one of the hydrogen atoms from hydrogen peroxide is replaced with an alkyl group, as in tert-butyl hydroperoxide. But replacement of both the H atoms with alkyl groups halts the reaction as seen with di-tert-butyl peroxides, and peroxodisulfate ion. The reaction rate with hydrogen peroxide significantly decreases with increasing proportion of D2O replacing water in the solvent and the rate-limiting step seems to be an H-atom transfer.