PQQ-Aza-Crown Ether Complexes as Biomimetics for Lanthanide and Calcium Dependent Alcohol Dehydrogenases

<div>Understanding the role of metal ions in biology can lead to the development of new catalysts for</div><div>several industrially important transformations. Lanthanides are the most recent group of metal ions</div><div>that have been shown to be important in biology i.e. - in quinone-dependent methanol</div><div>dehydrogenases (MDH). Here we evaluate a pyrroloquinoline quinone and 1-aza-15-crown-5 based</div><div>ligand platform as scaffold for Ca2+ , Ba2+ , La3+ and Lu3+ biomimetics of MDH and we evaluate the</div><div>importance of ligand design, charge, size, counterions and base for the alcohol oxidation reaction</div><div>using NMR spectroscopy. In addition, we report a new straightforward synthetic route (3 steps</div><div>instead of 11 and 33% instead of 0.6% yield) for biomimetic ligands based on PQQ. We show that</div><div>when studying biomimetics for MDH, larger metal ions and those with lower charge in this case</div><div>promote the dehydrogenation reaction more effectively and that this is likely an effect of the ligand</div><div>design which must be considered when studying biomimetics. To gain more information on the</div><div>structures and impact of counterions of the complexes, we performed collision induced dissociation</div><div>(CID) experiments and observe that the nitrates are more tightly bound than the triflates. To resolve</div><div>the structure of the complexes in the gas phase we combined DFT-calculations and ion mobility</div><div>measurements (IMS). Furthermore, we characterized the obtained complexes and reaction mixtures</div><div>using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and show the emergence of a quinone-</div><div>based radical during the reaction with substrate and base.</div>