New four-coordinated tetrahedral copper(I) complexes have been synthesized from the reactions between [CuCl(2)(PPh(3))(2)] and N-(diphenylcarbamothioyl)benzamide (HL1) or N-(diethylcarbamothioyl)benzamide (HL2) in benzene. These complexes have been characterized by elemental analyses, IR, UV/Vis, (1)H, (13)C and (31)P NMR spectroscopy. The molecular structure of both the complexes, [CuCl(HL1)(2)(PPh(3))] (1) and [CuCl(HL2)(PPh(3))(2)] (2) were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, which reveals distorted tetrahedral geometry around each Cu(I) ion. The combination of 2 (0.005 mmol) with hydrogen peroxide (2.5 mmol) in acetonitrile is found to be an active catalyst for the oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols (0.5 mmol) to their corresponding acids and ketones, respectively, at room temperature.

a b s t r a c tIn many microorganisms, carbohydrate acetylesterases remove the acetyl groups from various types of carbohydrates. Sm23 from Sinorhizobium meliloti is a putative member of carbohydrate esterase family 3 (CE3) in the CAZy classification system. Here, we determined the crystal structure of Sm23 at 1.75 Å resolution and investigated functional properties using biochemical methods. Furthermore, immobilized Sm23 exhibited improved stability compared with soluble Sm23, which can be used for the design of plant cell wall degrading-systems.

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