The relevance of Mn carboxylate clusters as an active site mimic for various metalloproteins and enzymes is profound. For example synthetic chemists are trying to mimic the active site of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II, available in green plants and cyanobacteria for decades. The OEC in photosystem II is known to catalyze the light-driven oxidation of water to dioxygen. The structure of the OEC has not been completely comprehended; however, the assumption is that it comprises of a high-valent, cubane subunit, Mn4Ca complex surrounded by a network of H-bonds, responsible for the multi-electron transfer process. In this regard inorganic Mn/Ca complexes can act as synthetic models of the OEC as they can help to understand the magnetic and spectroscopic properties of the native site and the mechanism of its function for water oxidation. Nature has been efficiently carrying out the conversion of water to dioxygen for approximately 2.7 billion years. Hence, one of the many practical applications of mimicking this photosynthetic catalyst would be a more efficient and cost reduced way to produce molecular oxygen. A potential side benefit of this would also be a possible fuel source since H2 gas would be a byproduct of the oxidation of water. Herein, the strategic synthesis of combining various manganese and calcium carboxylates with a multi-dentate, aromatic, ligand precursor has been explored for the first time in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. The ligand in use is Vitamin-B6 (Pyridoxine), an essential vitamin which displays several coordination modes with different charges and hard/soft behavior. The initial reactivity of the potentially tetradentate, alcohol based chelate (N,O,O,O), 2-methyl-3-hydroxy-4,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)pyridine, commonly known as pyridoxine as an essential ingredient of vitaminB6 has been investigated in Mn/Ca carboxylate chemistry. The synthesis, elemental composition, spectroscopic characterizations like IR, UV-Vis, 1H NMR studies are currently being performed for the manganese-calcium-pyridoxine complex

Initial investigation on structural mimicking of the photosynthetic catalysts

251st National Meeting (2016)

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