Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase (CODH/ACS) utilizes a unique Ni-M bimetallic site in the biosynthesis of acetyl-CoA, where a square-planar Ni ion is coordinated to two thiolates and two deprotonated amides in a Cys-Gly-Cys motif. The identity of M is currently a matter of debate, although both Cu and Ni have been proposed. In an effort to model ACS's unusual active site and to provide insight into the mechanism of acetyl-CoA formation and the role of each of the metals ions, we have prepared and structurally characterized a number of Ni(II)-peptide mimic complexes. The mononuclear complexes Ni(II) N, N'-bis(2-mercaptoethyl)oxamide (1), Ni(II) N, N'-ethylenebis(2-mercaptoacetamide) (2), and Ni(II) N, N'-ethylenebis(2-mercaptopropionamide) (3) model the Ni(Cys-Gly-Cys) site and can be used as synthons for additional multinuclear complexes. Reaction of 2 with MeI resulted in the alkylation of the sulfur atoms and the formation of Ni(II) N, N'-ethylenebis(2-methylmercaptoacetamide) (4), demonstrating the nucleophilicity of the terminal alkyl thiolates. Addition of Ni(OAc)(2).4H(2)O to3 resulted in the formation of a trinuclear species (5), while 2 crystallizes as an unusual paddlewheel complex (6) in the presence of nickel acetate. The difference in reactivity between the similar complexes 2 and 3 highlights the importance of ligand design when synthesizing models of ACS. Significantly,5 maintains the key features observed in the active site of ACS, namely a square-planar Ni coordinated to two deprotonated amides and two thiolates, where the thiolates bridge to a second metal, suggesting that 5 is a reasonable structural model for this unique enzyme.

The distal nickel site of acetyl-CoA synthase (Ni d -ACS) and reduced nickel superoxide dismutase (Ni-SOD) display similar square-planar Ni II N 2 S 2 coordination environments. One difference between these two sites, however, is that the nickel ion in Ni-SOD contains a mixed amine/amidate coordination motif while the Ni d site in Ni-ACS contains a bisamidate coordination motif. To provide insight into the consequences of the different coordination environments on the properties of the Ni ions, we systematically examined two square-planar Ni II N 2 S 2 complexes, one with bisthiolate-glycinamide] and another with bisthiolate-amine/amidate ligation K(Ni(HL2)) (3) [H 4 L2 = N-(2"-mercaptoethyl)-2-((2'-mercaptoethyl)amino)acetamide]. Although these two complexes differ only by a single amine vs. amidate ligand, the chemical properties of them are quite different. The stronger in-plane ligand field in the bisamidate complex (Ni II (L1)) 2− (2) results in an increase in the energies of the d → d transitions and a considerably more negative oxidation potential. Furthermore, while the bisamidate complex (Ni II (L1)) 2− (2) readily forms a trinuclear species (Et 4 N) 2 ({Ni(L1)} 2 Ni) ·H 2 O (1) and reacts rapidly with O 2 , presumably via sulfoxidation, the mixed amine/amidate complex (Ni II (HL2)) − (3) remains monomeric and is stable for days in air. Interestingly, the Ni III species of the bisamidate complex formed by chemical oxidation with I 2 can be detected by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy while the mixed amine/amidate complex immediately decomposes upon oxidation. In order to explain these experimentally observed properties, we performed S K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy and low-temperature (77 K) electronic absorption measurements as well as both hybrid density functional theory (hybrid-DFT) and spectroscopy oriented configuration interaction (SORCI) calculations. These studies demonstrate that the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the bisamidate complex (Ni II (L1)) 2− (2) has more Ni character and is significantly destabilized relative to the mixed amine/amidate complex (Ni II (HL2)) − (3) by ~6.2 kcal mol −1 . The consequence of this destabilization is manifested in the

Copper(II) 2,2'-bipyridine (Cu(II) (bpy))-catalyzed alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) pretreatment was performed on three biomass feedstocks including alkali pre-extracted switchgrass, silver birch, and a hybrid poplar cultivar. This catalytic approach was found to improve the subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis of plant cell wall polysaccharides to monosaccharides for all biomass types at alkaline pH relative to uncatalyzed pretreatment. The hybrid poplar exhibited the most significant improvement in enzymatic hydrolysis with monomeric sugar release and conversions more than doubling from 30% to 61% glucan conversion, while lignin solubilization was increased from 36.6% to 50.2% and hemicellulose solubilization was increased from 14.9% to 32.7%. It was found that Cu(II) (bpy)-catalyzed AHP pretreatment of cellulose resulted in significantly more depolymerization than uncatalyzed AHP pretreatment (78.4% vs. 49.4% decrease in estimated degree of polymerization) and that carboxyl content the cellulose was significantly increased as well (fivefold increase vs. twofold increase). Together, these results indicate that Cu(II) (bpy)-catalyzed AHP pretreatment represents a promising route to biomass deconstruction for bioenergy applications.