Effect of a tridentate ligand on the structure, electronic structure, and reactivity of the copper(I) nitrite complex: role of the conserved three-histidine ligand environment of the type-2 copper site in copper-containing nitrite reductases.

It is postulated that the copper(I) nitrite complex is a key reaction intermediate of copper containing nitrite reductases (Cu-NiRs), which catalyze the reduction of nitrite to nitric oxide (NO) gas in bacterial denitrification. To investigate the structure-function relationship of Cu-NiR, we prepared five new copper(I) nitrite complexes with sterically hindered tris(4-imidazolyl)carbinols [Et-TIC = tris(1-methyl-2-ethyl-4-imidazolyl)carbinol and iPr-TIC = tris(1-methyl-2-isopropyl-4-imidazolyl)carbinol] or tris(1-pyrazolyl)methanes [Me-TPM = tris(3,5-dimethyl-1-pyrazolyl)methane; Et-TPM = tris(3,5-diethyl-1-pyrazolyl)methane; and iPr-TPM = tris(3,5-diisopropyl-1-pyrazolyl)methane]. The X-ray crystal structures of all of these copper(I) nitrite complexes were mononuclear eta(1)-N-bound nitrite complexes with a distorted tetrahedral geometry.