Superoxide dismutase mimicking Cu(II)–mixed amino acid complexes covalently grafted onto silica gel—an FT-IR study

Our recent work concerning the synthesis, characterisation and testing of bioinspired electron transfer catalysts is described in this contribution. The catalysts were various Cu(II) complexes having mixed C- or N-protected amino acids ( l -histidine and l -tyrosine) as ligands covalently grafted onto surface-modified silica gel. The resulting materials were structurally characterised by FT-IR spectroscopy, and their superoxide dismutase activities were tested. The covalently anchored Cu(II) complexes displayed appreciable activities in the test reaction; thus, they may be considered as promising candidates as durable electron transfer catalysts approaching the efficiency of the enzyme mimicked. Figure Although the active site mimicking, covalently anchored Cu-mixed amino acid complexes are less effective catalysts than the superoxide dismutase enzyme, but they can work under harsh experimental conditions as well