| People involved: | Ebbe Nordlander, Biswanath Das, Mainak Mitra, Reena Singh |
| Former members: | Martin Jarenmark, Karin Holmqvist |
This project is related to the following Fields, Subjects and Techniques:
| Fields: | Synthetic Chemistry |
| Subjects: | Metal Complexes |
| Techniques: | Inorganic and organic synthesis |
The project is directed toward synthesis of dinuclear metal complexes that can be used as models for various active sites in enzymes containing two metal ions bound close to each other. The models will be used to study their reactivity toward biologically relevant substrates to aid in the determination of the mechanisms for the enzymes. Focus lies currently on models for iron, zinc, copper and manganese containing enzymes such as purple acid phosphatase, zinc phosphotriesterase, tyrosinase and catalase.
The project involves organic synthesis to construct the ligand that will bind the two metal ions close to each other and inorganic synthesis to make the metal complexes. The compounds synthesized are characterized by various spectroscopic methods including NMR, UV/vis and IR. Some of the metal complexes are studied by electrochemical methods and, if suitable crystals can be grown, by X-ray crystallography.
Spectroscopic methods are also used to study the kinetics of the biologically relevant reactions of various substrates catalysed by these complexes.
