Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati 517507 India.; Department of Chemistry, Punjab University, Chandigarh Punjab India ; Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Chemie, Brook-Taylor-Straße 2, D-12489 Berlin Germany
Abstract:
Nitrate reductases (NRs) are molybdoenzymes that reduce nitrate (NO3−) to nitrite (NO2−) in both mammals and plants. In mammals, the salival microbes take part in the generation of the NO2− from NO3−, which further produces nitric oxide (NO) either in acid-induced NO2− reduction or in the presence of nitrite reductases (NiRs). Here, we report a new approach of VCl3 (V3+ ion source) induced step-wise reduction of NO3− in a CoII-nitrato complex, [(12-TMC)CoII(NO3−)]+ (2,{CoII–NO3−}), to a CoIII–nitrosyl complex, [(12-TMC)CoIII(NO)]2+ (4,{CoNO}8), bearing an N-tetramethylated cyclam (TMC) ligand. The VCl3 inspired reduction of NO3− to NO is believed to occur in two consecutive oxygen atom transfer (OAT) reactions, i.e., OAT-1 = NO3− → NO2− (r1) and OAT-2 = NO2− → NO (r2). In these OAT reactions, VCl3 functions as an O-atom abstracting species, and the reaction of 2 with VCl3 produces a CoIII-nitrosyl ({CoNO}8) with VV-Oxo ({VVO}3+) species, via a proposed CoII-nitrito (3, {CoII–NO2−}) intermediate species. Further, in a separate experiment, we explored the reaction of isolated complex 3 with VCl3, which showed the generation of 4 with VV-Oxo, validating our proposed reaction sequences of OAT reactions. We ensured and characterized 3 using VCl3 as a limiting reagent, as the second-order rate constant of OAT-2 (k2/) is found to be ∼1420 times faster than that of the OAT-1 (k2) reaction. Binding constant (Kb) calculations also support our proposition of NO3− to NO transformation in two successive OAT reactions, as Kb(CoII–NO2−) is higher than Kb(CoII–NO3−), hence the reaction moves in the forward direction (OAT-1). However, Kb(CoII–NO2−) is comparable to Kb{CoNO}8, and therefore sequenced the second OAT reaction (OAT-2). Mechanistic investigations of these reactions using 15N-labeled-15NO3− and 15NO2− revealed that the N-atom in the {CoNO}8 is derived from NO3− ligand. This work highlights the first-ever report of VCl3 induced step-wise NO3− reduction (NRs activity) followed by the OAT induced NO2− reduction and then the generation of Co-nitrosyl species {CoNO}8.Single metal-induced reduction of NO3− → {NO2−} → NO via oxygen atom transfer reaction.
