Catecholase Activity Investigations using in situ Copper Complexes Continuing Schiff Base Derivatives with a Theoretical Calculation

The study of catecholase activity of a series of Schiff base compounds using in situ copper complexes of 4-hydroxy-6-methyl-3-(1-(phenylimino)ethyl)-2H-pyran-2-one derivatives has been reported. The reaction rate depends on four parameters: The nature of the substitution in para position to the benzene ring, the nature of counter anion, the concentration of ligand and the nature of solvent. The highest rate activity is given by complex resulting from one equivalent of ligand L2 and two equivalents of copper acetate in methanol, which equal to 62.25 μmol.min-1.L-1.In other part, a theoretical study of such ligands using the semi-empirical method AM1 were also investigated. A good relationship founded between the maximal reaction rate (V max ) and the HOMO energy (Pearson correlation: r=-0.794).