Redox active metalloenzymes play a major role in energy transformation reactions in biological systems. Examples include formate dehydrogenases, nitrogenases, CO dehydrogenase, and hydrogenases. Many of these reactions are also of interest to humans as potential energy storage or utilization reactions for photoelectrochemical, electrolytic, and fuel cell applications. These metalloenzymes consist of redox active metal centers where substrates are activated and undergo transformation to products accompanied by electron and proton transfer to or from the substrate. These active sites are typically buried deep within a protein matrix of the enzyme with channels for proton transport, electron transport, and substrate/product transport between the active site and the surface of the protein. In addition, there are amino acid residues that lie in close proximity to the active site that are thought to play important roles in regulating and enhancing enzyme activity. Directly studying the outer coordination sphere of enzymes can be challenging due to their complexity, and the use of modified molecular catalysts may allow us to provide some insight. There are two fundamentally different approaches to understand these important interactions. The "bottom-up" approach involves building an amino acid or peptide containing outer coordination sphere around a functional molecular catalyst, and the "top-down" approach involves attaching molecular catalyst to a structured protein. Both of these approaches have been undertaken for hydrogenase mimics and are the emphasis of this Account. Our focus has been to utilize amino acid or peptide based scaffolds on an active functional enzyme mimic for H2 oxidation and production, [Ni(P(R)2N(R('))2)2](2+). This "bottom-up" approach has allowed us to evaluate individual functional group and structural contributions to electrocatalysts for H2 oxidation and production. For instance, using amine, ether, and carboxylic acid functionalities in the outer coordination sphere enhances proton movement and results in lower catalytic overpotentials for H2 oxidation, while achieving water solubility in some cases. Amino acids with acidic and basic side chains concentrate substrate around catalysts for H2 production, resulting in up to 5-fold enhancements in rate. The addition of a structured peptide in an H2 production catalyst limited the structural freedom of the amino acids nearest the active site, while enhancing the overall rate. Enhanced stability to oxygen or extreme conditions such as strongly acidic or basic conditions has also resulted from an amino acid based outer coordination sphere. From the "top-down" approach, others have achieved water solubility and photocatalytic activity by associating this core complex with photosystem-I. Collectively, by use of this well understood core, the role of individual and combined features of the outer coordination sphere are starting to be understood at a mechanistic level. Common mechanisms have yet to be defined to predictably control these processes, bu...

The outer-coordination sphere of enzymes acts to fine-tune the active site reactivity and control catalytic rates, suggesting that incorporation of analogous structural elements into molecular catalysts may be necessary to achieve rates comparable to those observed in enzyme systems at low overpotentials. In this work, we evaluate the effect of an amino acid and dipeptide outer-coordination sphere on [Ni(P(Ph)(2)N(Ph-R)(2))(2)](2+) hydrogen production catalysts. A series of 12 new complexes containing non-natural amino acids or dipeptides was prepared to test the effects of positioning, size, polarity and aromaticity on catalytic activity. The non-natural amino acid was either 3-(meta- or para-aminophenyl)propionic acid terminated as an acid, an ester or an amide. Dipeptides consisted of one of the non-natural amino acids coupled to one of four amino acid esters: alanine, serine, phenylalanine or tyrosine. All of the catalysts are active for hydrogen production, with rates averaging ∼1000 s(-1), 40 % faster than the unmodified catalyst. Structure and polarity of the aliphatic or aromatic side chains of the C-terminal peptide do not strongly influence rates. However, the presence of an amide bond increases rates, suggesting a role for the amide in assisting catalysis. Overpotentials were lower with substituents at the N-phenyl meta position. This is consistent with slower electron transfer in the less compact, para-substituted complexes, as shown in digital simulations of catalyst cyclic voltammograms and computational modeling of the complexes. Combining the current results with insights from previous results, we propose a mechanism for the role of the amino acid and dipeptide based outer-coordination sphere in molecular hydrogen production catalysts.

Catalytic, peptide-containing metal complexes with a well-defined peptide structure have the potential to enhance molecular catalysts through an enzyme-like outer coordination sphere. Here, we report the synthesis and characterization of an active, peptide-based metal complex built upon the well-characterized hydrogen production catalyst [Ni(P(Ph)2N(Ph))2](2+) (P(Ph)2N(Ph)=1,3,6-triphenyl-1-aza-3,6-diphosphacycloheptane). The incorporated peptide maintains its β-hairpin structure when appended to the metal core, and the electrocatalytic activity of the peptide-based metal complex (≈100,000 s(-1)) is enhanced compared to the parent complex ([Ni(P(Ph)2N(APPA))2](2+); ≈50,500 s(-1)). The combination of an active molecular catalyst with a structured peptide provides a scaffold that permits the incorporation of features of an enzyme-like outer-coordination sphere necessary to create molecular electrocatalysts with enhanced functionality.

A series of dipeptide substituted nickel complexes with the general formula, [Ni(P(Ph)(2)N(NNA-amino acid/ester)(2))(2)](BF(4))(2), have been synthesized and characterized (P(2)N(2) = 1,5-diaza-3,7-diphosphacyclooctane, and the dipeptide consists of the non-natural amino acid, 3-(4-aminophenyl)propionic acid (NNA), coupled to amino acid/esters = glutamic acid, alanine, lysine, and aspartic acid). Each of these complexes is an active electrocatalyst for H(2) production. The effects of the outer-coordination sphere on the catalytic activity for the production of H(2) were investigated; specifically, the impact of sterics, the ability of the side chain or backbone to protonate and the pK(a) values of the amino acid side chains were studied by varying the amino acids in the dipeptide. The catalytic rates of the different dipeptide substituted nickel complexes varied by over an order of magnitude. The amino acid derivatives display the fastest rates, while esterification of the terminal carboxylic acids and side chains resulted in a decrease in the catalytic rate by 50-70%, implicating a significant role of protonated sites in the outer-coordination sphere on catalytic activity. For both the amino acid and ester derivatives, the complexes with the largest substituents display the fastest rates, indicating that catalytic activity is not hindered by steric bulk. These studies demonstrate the significant contribution that the outer-coordination sphere can have in tuning the catalytic activity of small molecule hydrogenase mimics.

A series of low fouling peptide self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) was developed to understand how the effects of subtle sequence alterations determine the properties of peptideterminated SAMs and settlement and adhesion of two model fouling organisms, the green alga Ulva linza and the diatom Navicula perminuta, and adsorption of two different proteins, fibrinogen and lysozyme. Insertion of the bulky, nonproteinogenic amino acid αaminoisobutyric acid (Aib) was examined for how it affects the peptide surfaces and performance in the assays. By exchanging the serine (S) of the sequence (SGKGSSGSS) with alanine (A), we slightly altered the hydrophilicity and found reduced fouling by N. perminuta. The inclusion of Aib residues resulted in surface structural changes of the peptides from a mixture of β-sheet/random coil to strictly random coil and a decrease in the overall packing density by about 17−37%. Notably, these changes had little effect on the ability of the surface to resist nonspecific adsorption of fibrinogen and lysozyme and attachment of N. perminuta. The sequences containing Aib were 50− 84% better than without Aib against the settlement of the zoospore of U. linza. Furthermore, the inclusion of Aib helped to create peptides that were 100% resistant against enzymatic degradation by trypsin, whereas the peptides without Aib were 95% degraded after 4 h.