The pH, Eh, electrical conductivity (EC), and the amounts and valency of replaceable iron were measured periodically on Fe2+- and Fe3+-saturated montmorillonite and cation-exchange resin at three temperatures. Differences in the pattern of change of pH, Eh, and EC with time appear to be related more to the histories and modes of preparation of the systems than to intrinsic differences in the hydrolysis of the iron in them. Electron transfer reactions involving crystal components of the clay can cause oxidation of adsorbed Fe2+ ions; the activation energy (Ea) for oxidation on the clay's surface was 6 kcal/mole, less than a third of the activation energy reported for Fe2+ oxidation in solution. In the Fe2+-resin, where Ea = 10.7 kcal/mole, perturbed surface-water molecules may act as electron acceptors enhancing Fe2+ oxidation.

Polymerization and precipitation of the adsorbed iron is affected by the necessity to maintain electroneutrality, the ability of the iron-hydroxy ions and small polymers to move about in the voids of the ion exchanger, and the steric hindrance posed by the matrix of the ion exchanger to the formation of large polymers. In resin, little or no iron precipitates, probably due both to steric hindrance and the inability of the resin to release ionic components to maintain electroneutrality. In clays, steric hindrance is small, and Al and Mg are released from the crystal to maintain electroneutrality, thus the precipitation of iron is abundant and is controlled by the rate of release of Al and Mg from the crystal.

The roles of different forms of Fe(III) impurities in a hectorite with respect to the oxidation of benzidine in aqueous suspension have been evaluated using electron spin resonance and UV-visible spectroscopy. Natural surface-adsorbed Fe(III) showed no detectable activity in the oxidation process, while very small quantities of structural octahedral Fe(III) apparently promoted a relatively rapid conversion to the radical cation. However, extremely small quantities of benzidine were oxidized in comparison to the exchange capacity of the clay. Freshly adsorbed Fe3+ cations effectively oxidized benzidine, but lost much of this ability upon aging. The Fe(III)-benzidine electron transfer could be distinguished from an O2-benzidine reaction, since the latter reaction was slow and limited by the rate of O2 diffusion into the clay-water system. The O2-benzidine reaction was also inhibited at high pH. The existence of two reaction mechanisms and the involvement of only a small fraction of the total structural iron, as shown by comparison of the hectorite and a montmorillonite, may explain the conflicting interpretations in the literature. The benzidine blue reaction not only requires an oxidizing agent to form the radical, but also a clay surface to adsorb and stabilize it against further oxidation.

A kinetic study of the oxidation of hydroquinone by aqueous suspensions of hausmannite at pH 6 was conducted using an on-line analysis system. Electron transfer between hydroquinone and the oxide was monitored by ultraviolet and electron spin resonance spectroscopy to measure the loss of hydroquinone and the appearance of oxidation products. Although hydroquinone oxidized on the surface of the oxide and the oxide surface was altered after the reduction, hydroquinone and its oxidation products did not adsorb strongly on the surface. At a high concentration of hydroquinone, p-benzosemiquinone free radicals persisted in aqueous solution and were oxidized by dissolved O2. Calculations based on the thermodynamic stabilities of the oxide and the organic species involved show that the formation of p-benzosemiquinone radical by Mn reduction is feasible. The presence of the radicals indicates that the oxidation of hydroquinone by the oxide proceeded by a one-electron transfer process. At high organic/ oxide ratios, an increase in the amount of hausmannite dissolved with increasing hydroquinone concentration suggests that the reduction of the oxide by the organic was not limited to the surface layer of the oxide. At a high concentration of hydroquinone, polymers were detected in solution, suggesting that radical-mediated reactions played a role in the polymerization process. A reaction scheme is proposed to explain the effect of the Mn oxide to hydroquinone ratio on the consumption of O2 and the appearance of quinone, p-benzosemiquinone, and polymers in solution.

The kinetics of hydroquinone oxidation by aqueous suspensions of pure hematite and goethite-ferrihydrite mixtures at pH 6.0, 7.4, and 9 was studied using an on-line analysis system. The electron transfer between hydroquinone and the Fe oxides was monitored by UV-visible and electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The adsorption of organics on the Fe oxide surface was detected by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. For different Fe oxides, a higher surface area was correlated with a greater oxidizing ability and greater adsorption of organics, suggesting that the oxidation reaction was a surface process. A reversal of the initially rapid redox reaction was found in this system, suggesting a delayed release of Fe2+ into solution as the reduction of the Fe oxide proceeded. Redox potential calculations confirmed the thermodynamic favorability of the reaction reversal. A distribution of the reduced state over neighboring Fe atoms on the oxide surface probably was responsible for the initial suppression of Fe2+ release into the aqueous phase. Based upon these observations and detection of the semiquinone radical as an intermediate of hydroquinone oxidation, an inner-sphere one-electron transfer mechanism for the oxidation of hydroquinone at the oxide surface is proposed.

Biological electron transfers often occur between metal-containing cofactors that are separated by very large molecular distances. Employing photosensitizer-modified iron and copper proteins, we have shown that single-step electron tunneling can occur on nanosecond to microsecond timescales at distances between 15 and 20 Å. We also have shown that charge transport can occur over even longer distances by hole hopping (multistep tunneling) through intervening tyrosines and tryptophans. In this perspective, we advance the hypothesis that such hole hopping through Tyr/Trp chains could protect oxygenase, dioxygenase, and peroxidase enzymes from oxidative damage. In support of this view, by examining the structures of P450 (CYP102A) and 2OG-Fe (TauD) enzymes, we have identified candidate Tyr/Trp chains that could transfer holes from uncoupled high-potential intermediates to reductants in contact with protein surface sites.

Blue copper proteins are type-I copper-containing redox proteins whose role is to shuttle electrons from an electron donor to an electron acceptor in bacteria and plants. A large amount of experimental data is available on blue copper proteins; however, their functional characterization is hindered by the complexity of redox processes in biological systems. We describe here the application of a semiquantitative method based on a comparative analysis of molecular interaction fields to gain insights into the recognition properties of blue copper proteins. Molecular electrostatic and hydrophobic potentials were computed and compared for a set of 33 experimentally-determined structures of proteins from seven blue copper subfamilies, and the results were quantified by means of similarity indices. The analysis provides a classification of the blue copper proteins and shows that (1) comparison of the molecular electrostatic potentials provides useful information complementary to that highlighted by sequence analysis; (2) similarities in recognition properties can be detected for proteins belonging to different subfamilies, such as amicyanins and pseudoazurins, that may be isofunctional proteins; (3) dissimilarities in interaction properties, consistent with experimentally different binding specificities, may be observed between proteins belonging to the same subfamily, such as cyanobacterial and eukaryotic plastocyanins; (4) proteins with low sequence identity, such as azurins and pseudoazurins, can have sufficient similarity to bind to similar electron donors and acceptors while having different binding specificity profiles.

On the basis of crystal structures of the pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) dependent enzymes methanol dehydrogenase (MDH) and soluble glucose dehydrogenase (s-GDH), different catalytic mechanisms have been proposed. However, several lines of biochemical and kinetic evidence are strikingly similar for both enzymes. To resolve this discrepancy, we have compared the structures of these enzymes in complex with their natural substrates in an attempt to bring them in line with a single reaction mechanism. In both proteins, PQQ is located in the center of the molecule near the axis of pseudo-symmetry. In spite of the absence of significant sequence homology, the overall binding of PQQ in the respective active sites is similar. Hydrogen bonding interactions are made with polar protein side chains in the plane of the cofactor, whereas hydrophobic stacking interactions are important below and above PQQ. One Arg side chain and one calcium ion are ligated to the ortho-quinone group of PQQ in an identical fashion in either active site, in agreement with their proposed catalytic function of polarizing the PQQ C5-O5 bond. The substrates are bound in a similar position above PQQ and within hydrogen bond distance of the putative general bases Asp297 (MDH) and His144 (s-GDH). On the basis of these similarities, we propose that MDH and s-GDH react with their substrates through an identical mechanism, comprising general base-catalyzed hydride transfer from the substrate to PQQ and subsequent tautomerization of the PQQ intermediate to reduced PQQ.

The solution structure and backbone dynamics of Cu(I) pseudoazurin, a 123 amino acid electron transfer protein from Paracoccus pantotrophus, have been determined using NMR methods. The structure was calculated to high precision, with a backbone RMS deviation for secondary structure elements of 0.35 ± 0.06 Å, using 1,498 distance and 55 torsion angle constraints. The protein has a double-wound Greek-key fold with two α-helices toward its C-terminus, similar to that of its oxidized counterpart determined by X-ray crystallography. Comparison of the Cu(I) solution structure with the X-ray structure of the Cu(II) protein shows only small differences in the positions of some of the secondary structure elements. Order parameters S2, measured for amide nitrogens, indicate that the backbone of the protein is rigid on the picosecond to nanosecond timescale.