A Copper(II) tris-imidazolylphosphine complex as a functional model of flavonol 2,4-dioxygenase

Reaction of tetrakis(acetonitrile)copper(I) perchlorate ([Cu(NCCH ₃ ) ₄ ][ClO ₄ ]), tris-1-ethyl-4-methylimidazolylphosphine (T1Et4MeIP) (1) and 3-hydroxyflavone (flavH) under ambient conditions produces an in-situ generated flavonol bound copper(II) complex, which converts to a stable green complex that formulates to [Cu(T1Et4MeIP)(flav)][ClO ₄ ] (2). The crystal structure of 2 was determined by X-ray diffraction and crystallizes in a triclinic system (P1¯) with unit cell dimensions of a = 14.537(15) Å, b = 15.794(14) Å, c = 17.044(17) Å, α = 65.58(3)˚, β = 86.80(5)˚, γ = 73.34(4)˚, V = 3376(6) Å ³ and Z = 2. While the five-coordinate copper(II) complex is stable under ambient conditions in the solid state, it undergoes oxidative scission of the flavonol pyrone ring under photolytic (300 nm) and/or thermal (120 °C) conditions in the presence of molecular oxygen. The degradative process produces the corresponding methylated products: methylbenzoate, methyl salicylate and N,N-dimethylbenzamide. In addition, the previously undisclosed single crystal X-ray structure of tris-1-ethyl-4-methylimidazolylphosphine (1), T1Et4MeIP, is also reported.