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Enhancing Phosphate Diester Cleavage by a Zinc Complex through Controlling Nucleophile Coordination
Author(s) -
Tirel Emmanuel Y.,
Williams Nicholas H.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201500619
Subject(s) - nucleophile , chemistry , oxyanion , hydroxide , ligand (biochemistry) , catalysis , metal , phosphate , combinatorial chemistry , zinc , inorganic chemistry , medicinal chemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , receptor
Metal‐ion complexes are the most effective artificial catalysts capable of cleaving phosphate diesters under mild aqueous conditions. A central strategy for making these complexes highly reactive has been to use ligand‐based alcohols that are coordinated to the ion, providing an ionised nucleophile under neutral conditions but at the expense of deactivating it. We have created a highly reactive Zn complex that is 350‐fold more reactive than an alcohol analogue by preventing the nucleophile binding to the metal ion. This strategy successfully delivers the benefits of efficient nucleophile delivery without strongly deactivating the metal ion Lewis acidity nor the oxyanion nucleophilicity. Varying the leaving group reveals that the transition state of the reaction is much further advanced than the reaction with hydroxide.