Investigation of the influence of ligands in coordination compounds of copper on their catalytic activity in the reaction of urethane formation

Electrophilic Modulation of the Superoxide Anion Radical Scavenging Ability of Copper(II) Complexes with 4-Methyl Imidazole

“…The activity of the metalloenzyme with O 2 •– ( k = 2.37 × 10 9 s –1 M –1 at 25 °C) is promoted by the redox reactivity of Cu­(II) and the acid–base behavior of the imidazole ligand. , Cu­(II) is reduced and oxidized by O 2 •– in a two-step mechanism: (i) Cu­(II) + O 2 •– →Cu­(I) + O 2 and (ii) Cu­(I) + O 2 •– + 2H + → Cu­(II) + H 2 O 2 . Many compounds with SOD and superoxide dismutation activities have been synthesized with different redox and non-redox pairs and heterocyclic ligands. − Our interest is to obtain active antioxidant coordination compounds that have minimal structural variation with the active site of CuZn-SOD and substituents that increase their water solubility. , To achieve our objective, we used inorganic salts of Cu­(II) and 4-methyl imidazole, which maintain the tetrahedral geometry of Cu­(II), similar to that found in the active site of the metalloenzyme. Our strategy to increase the antioxidant activity was to increase the ET process based on the principle that “as the electron transfer between O 2 •– (nucleophile) and the coordination compound (electrophile) increases, the interaction also increases”.…”