Hydrolytic cleavage of p-nitrophenyl picolinate by mononuclear Zn(II) and Co(II) complexes with imidazole derivative in CTAB micellar solution

Abstract

One new hydroxyl-functionalized imidazole derivative (L) was synthesized and characterized. Further, the related mononuclear zinc(II) and cobalt(II) complexes were prepared and used as mimic hydrolases to catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of p-nitrophenyl picolinate (PNPP) in buffered aqueous solution and a micellar solution of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Observations show that for all of catalytic systems, the hydrolysis of PNPP was pH-dependent in the pH range of 7.00–8.20. Besides, hydrolysis rates of PNPP displayed a constant increase with the increasing concentration of substrate. In the case of CoL-containing system, moreover, much greater acceleration for PNPP hydrolysis was observed in comparison with the ZnL-containing system. However, micellar effect of CTAB micelle aggregates on the PNPP hydrolysis was not obvious only showing 1.0 ∼ 1.3 folds rate difference in contrast to buffered aqueous solution.