“…To test the hypothesis that there is an underlying molecular-level mechanism explaining the pH-dependent Cu II -mediated oxidation of OTC, this study attempted to link pH-dependent speciation of Cu II –OTC complexes with the charge transfer rate k trans derived from the kinetics model of Cu I evolution. Previous studies have identified O3, N4, and O10 atoms of TCs as redox-active donor atoms which could be partially attacked by various electrophilic oxidant. ,,, Quite interestingly, preferentially coordinated tricarbonyl group (O3) at varying pH and additional coordinated dimethylamino group (N4) only at pH 8.5, which were identified by spectral analysis and corresponded with two kinds of site models, also participated into the complexation of Cu II –OTC, suggesting that O3 and N4 atoms as two Cu II -binding sites may be also the redox-active sites as the Cu II -mediated oxidation of OTC. To prove the above hypothesis, the correlation between the concentration of speciation of Cu II –OTC complexes and the charge transfer rate k trans at varying pH conditions were established (Figure ), which indicated that C [Cu II –H 2 L 0 ] at pH 3.0, C [Cu II –HL – ] at pH 5.0, and C [Cu II –L 2– ] at pH 8.5 performed a good linear correlation with k trans ,1 at corresponding pH and k trans ,2 at pH 8.5, i.e., C [speciation of Cu II –O3] was directly proportion to k trans ,1 but C [speciation of Cu II –N4] was inversely proportion to k trans ,2 .…”