Kinetics of oxidation of Cu(I) complexes of cysteine and penicillamine: nature of intermediates and reactants at pH 10.0

The Cu(I)•L2 complex with cysteine ligands at total Cu(I) concentrations of 10–30 μM was shown to be oxidised by cysteinyl radicals (RS•) with a diffusion-controlled rate constant k11a = 1.8 × 109 M−1 s−1. The corresponding reaction with the cysteine disulphide anion (RS•—SR−) proceeded at a slower rate, k11b = 2.7 × 108 M−1s−1. At higher Cu(I) concentrations, a slow and a fast component of absorption growth was observed. The slow component rate was independent of Cu(I) concentration, but it became more intense as the Cu(I) concentration rose. The yields and kinetic data were shown to be consistent with the presence of an equilibrium between the Cu(I)•L2 species and a second Cu(I) complex, Cu(I)2•L3, with an equilibrium constant of K1 = 162.[Formula: see text]This finding is consistent with the earlier work of Bagiyan etal. The rate constant of the oxidation of Cu(I)2•L3 by the cysteinyl radical was k12 = 1.0 × 109 M−1 s−1. Similar results were obtained with penicillamine, except the rate constants and equilibrium constant were smaller, (k11a = 4.5 × 108 M−1 s−1, k11b < 2 × 108 M−1 s−1, k12 = 5.5 × 108 M−1 s−1 and K1 = 113). This was attributed to the presence of the β-methyl groups in penicillamine, which exert a large steric effect.The ultraviolet spectra of the long-lived products, which are stable on a millisecond timescale, was consistent with a Cu(II)•L2 structure with a square planar geometry. The oxidation of the Cu(I)2.L3 species proceeded via intermediates, which relaxed to the final product spectra with rate constants of k13b = 2.6 and 1.1 × 104 s−1 for cysteine and penicillamine, respectively. Comparison of the spectra of the intermediates with published data showed that they were consistent with the presence of a bridging thiolate ligand between Cu(I) and Cu(II). Keywords: oxidation, copper, mixed valence, cysteine, penicillamine, complexation.