Synthesis, characterization, magnetic, thermal and electrochemical studies of oxidovanadium (IV) picolyl hydrazones as functional catechol oxidase models

The picolyl hydrazone ligands derived from picolonic acid hydrazide and α-pyridyle ketone (L1, L2 and L3), α-acetyl thiophene (L4), α-formyl or α-acetyl phenol (L5 and L6 respectively) and 2-hydroxy-1-naphthaldehyde (L7) react with equimolecular amount of vanadyl sulfate in refluxing methanol to yield oxidovanadium (IV) complexes. The structure of the obtained ligands and their oxidovanadium (IV) complexes were characterized by various physicochemical techniques, viz. elemental analysis, molar conductance, magnetic susceptibility measurements, thermal analysis (TGA & DTG), IR, electronic absorption and ESR spectral studies. Cyclic voltammeteric behavior of the complexes has also been discussed. Five-coordinate square-pyramidal structure was proposed for all complexes. A monomeric nature was reported for complexes (2), (3), (6), and (7), while dimeric structures were suggested for complexes (1), (4) and (5). The ability of the complexes to catalyze the aerobic oxidation of catechol to the light absorbing o-quinone has been investigated. The results obtained show that all complexes catalyze this oxidation reaction and large variations in the rate were observed. Electrochemical data for most complexes show that there is a linear relationship between their ability to oxidize catechole and their E1/2 potentials. The most effective catalysts were those complexes which exhibited E1/2 values approached to the E° value of the natural tyrosinase enzyme isolated from mushroom, while those that largely deviated from that potential exhibited lower oxidase catalytic activity. The probable mechanistic implications of the catalytic oxidation reactions are discussed.