An iron(III)-Schiff base complex as a functional model of phenoxazinone synthase enzyme

Department of Chemistry, Raghunathpur College, Purulia-723 133, West Bengal, India

E-mail : mr.bbiswas@rediffmail.com

Department of Chemistry, Vivekananda Mahavidyalaya, Burdwan-713 104, West Bengal, India

Manuscript received online 26 December 2015, accepted 02 November 2016

A new iron(III) complex, [Fe(L)Cl₂ (H₂O)] (1) containing a (N,O,Cl)-donor Schiff base ligand has been synthesized and characterized by different analytical techniques. Room temperature magnetic measurement indicates the existence of high spin iron(III) compound in the solid state. Molar conductance value of the iron compound in methanol medium reveals the existence of 1 : 2 type electrolyte in solution. The structural formulation of the iron-Schiff base complex has been confirmed through optimization with B3LYP density functional theory (DFT) using 6-31_g(d) basis set and shows that the proposed structure is in better agreement with the experimental findings. The iron(III) complex has been evaluated to mimic the active site of phenoxazinone synthase enzyme in methanol medium. The iron(III) complex significantly promotes the catalytic oxidation of 2- aminophenol (AP) to 2-aminophenoxazin-3-one in under aerobic condition with a high turnover number, ^kcat =4.32×10³ h^–1 .