Ruthenium Organometallics of Chloro-Substituted 2′-Hydroxychalcones – A Story of Catecholase Biomimetics beyond Copper

Abstract Four new organoruthenium(II) compounds of 2’-hydroxychalcones, differing in the position of the chloro substituent at chalcone moiety, were prepared by solution synthesis and characterized by chemical analysis, infrared and electron spectroscopy, mass spectrometry and 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy, as biomimetic functional models of catechol oxidase. The molecular and crystal structures of three compounds were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The organometallics are neutral species having piano-stool pseudo octahedral geometry with ruthenium(II) coordinated by η6-cymene, bidentate monobasic 2’-hydroxychalcone ligand, and chloride ion. The catecholase activity of new organometallics was investigated by electron spectroscopy in three solvents at three temperatures. The kinetic measurements were done under pseudo first order conditions and vmax, kcat, KM, TON, TOF, and Ea values are determined. Compounds (1) – (4) have solvent-dependent catecholase activity with activity decreasing in order ethanol > methanol ≫ acetonitrile. The highest kcat value and the lowest activation energy were found for the reaction catalyzed by organometallic (4), having a chloro substituent at the B ring of the chalcone ligand in the para position. The kcat values of 104 h−1 and 105 h−1 order at 297 K and 307 K, respectively classify these organometallics among the best artificial functional models of catechol oxidase. The results indicate that the catechol oxidation mediated by organometallics (1) – (4) proceeds via semiquinone radical formation.