IRON PORPHYRIN MODELS OF BIOLOGICAL ELECTRON TRANSFER PROTEINS.

The axial ligands of the iron porphyrin in Cytochrome c, an electron transfer protein, are an imidazole group of a histidine residue and a methionine thioether. This ligand coordination sphere has been difficult to model and consequently the influence of these ligands on the properties of cytochrome c has been problematic. The electrochemical and spectroscopic study of a novel strapped porphyrin has been addressed toward this problem. Spectroscopic studies have demonstrated the ability of this porphyrin to hold a thioether ligand near the central metal atom. The influence of the thioether is not seen in the UV/visible spectrum of the iron complex of this porphyrin. The coordination of N-methyl imidazole to the iron complexes of several porphyrins has been studied by UV/visible spectroscopy. These studies indicate a reduced affinity of the strapped porphyrin for this ligand. Also, the oxidation products of several porphyrins were monitored by thin-layer spectroelectrochemistry. Cyclic voltammetry has been used to demonstrate the influence of the thioether on the Fe('+3)/Fe('+2) electron transfer reaction. It was found that the thioether stabilizes the lower oxidation state causing an anodic shift in the half-wave potential for the reaction. However, the stabilization seen with this model system is not sufficient to account for the large positive redox potential of Cytochrome c. The oxidations of a selected group of free base and metallo- porphyrins were also studied. It was found that the oxidation of strapped porphyrins was similar in many respects to those of non-strapped porphyrins. The notable acception to this generalization was the instability of the cation radical of the strapped porphyrins used in this work