Synthesis and studies of Cu(II)-thiolato complexes: Bioinorganic perspectives

Ligation of thiolate sulfur to copper at the active sites of quite a number of copper proteins has been established either by X-ray crystallographic and/or by spectroscopic studies. In addition, for Cu(II)-substituted metalloproteins, the presence of Cu(II)-thiolate bonding at the active sites could be established spectroscopically. Cu(II)-thiolate bonding in different enzymes is not always very similar. Obviously, the bioinorganic significance of Cu(II)-thiolate bonding is enormous and has attracted a lot of attention to synthesize model Cu(II)-thiolato complexes as electronic structural analogues of the active sites of these biomolecules. The present review deals with (i) nature of Cu(II)-thiolate bonding present in different metalloproteins, (ii) difficulties involved in the synthesis of Cu(II)-thiolates and ways to surmount them, (iii) characterization of the Cu(II)-thiolate bonding by electronic and EPR spectroscopic techniques and (iv) electron transfer properties of the Cu(II)-thiolato complexes by cyclic voltammetric studies. The properties of the Cu(II)-thiolato complexes have been discussed as possible models for the active site(s) of copper proteins. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.