Invited Talk 21st International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry 2025

Oxygenase mimicking immobilized metal complex catalysts (120923)

Shiro Hikichi 1
  1. Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Japan

The active sites of oxygenase enzymes catalysing hydrocarbon oxidation are composed of a transition metal complex with organic ligands. The metal complex active site locates in the hydrophobic pocket. The hydrophobicity of the spheres surrounding the active site increases their affinity for substrates as well as rapidly removing hydrophilic products from the active site and inhibiting over-oxidation. Immobilization of metal complex catalyst molecules on a solid surface lead to preventing deactivation due to structural changes caused by chemical equilibrium in solution or disproportionation reactions between complex catalyst molecules. In addition to such an improvement effect on stability, the immobilized metal complex catalysts have the advantage that different functional groups can be easily added to the solid support. This additional functionalization will control the structural properties surrounding the catalytically active metal center as well as the affinity of the catalysts toward substrates. In line with these concepts, we have been developing immobilized metal complex catalysts with the mesoporous silica support. the alkane hydroxylation activity of the immobilized iron complex catalysts covalently anchored into ordered mesopores of SBA-15 type silicate support is enhanced by the modification of the silica wall with long-chain alkyl fluoride and trimethylsilyl groups.1 Also, we have successfully developed an immobilized catalyst based on the cationic iron(II) complex with an NHC ligand, which is highly active for the epoxidation of alkenes and the hydroxylation of alkanes using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant; the iron-NHC complex cation is immobilized through electrostatic interaction on a SBA-15 type aluminosilicate with long-chain alkyl fluoride groups anchored on the mesopore wall and the outer surface of the support particle.2 Also, the hydrophobic or hydrophilic nature of the support leads the drastic changes in the catalytic alkene oxygenation selectivity of the tungstate species immobilized on the fluoroalkyl imidazolium-modified mesoporous silica support.3 These results revealed that the hydrophobic reaction field is efficient to improve the catalysis toward alkane and alkene oxygenation.

  1. Sakakura, S.; Kitamoto, R.; Goto, K.; Miura, S.; Takeda, T.; Okamura, M.; Fukatsu, A.; Itoh, S.; Hikichi, S., Catal. Sci. Technol., 2023, 13, 4839-4846.
  2. Fujisaki, H.; Okamura. M.; Hikichi, S.; Kojima, T., Chem. Commun., 2023, 59, 3265-3268.
  3. Kuwamoto, K.; Okamura, M.; Hikichi, S., ChemistryEurope., 2024, 2, e202300080.