a b s t r a c tThe heterodinuclear complexes [FeZn(L)(CH 3 CO 2 ) 2 ] + (L = ICIMP or IPCPMP) are structural models for the dinuclear active sites of plant purple acid phosphatases. They can be systematically synthesized from mononuclear iron complexes and enhance the rate of transesterification of 2-hydroxypropyl p-nitrophenyl phosphate, an assay for the catalytic hydrolysis performed by purple acid phosphatases.Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.The purple acid phosphatases catalyze the hydrolysis of phosphoesters at acidic pH. This class of enzymes contain active sites with dinuclear Fe(III)M(II) (M = Fe, Zn, Mn) cores [1], a number of which have been crystallographically characterized [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The structures of the active sites of the purple acid phosphatases isolated from plants are closely related and contain one iron and one zinc ion about 3.0-3.4 Å apart. The metals are ligated by histidines, tyrosines and carboxylate-containing amino acid residues and bridged by one of the carboxylate oxygens of an aspartate and a water or hydroxide molecule.The publication of the crystal structure of kidney bean purple acid phosphatase (kbPAP) [2] has provided impetus for the preparation of model complexes that may aid in the elucidation of the catalytic mechanism of this and related enzymes. Thus, FeZn complexes based on dinucleating ligands that contain a central bridging phenolate moiety have been published [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. These model complexes have been prepared by simultaneous or stepwise addition of one equivalent of each metal salt. Here, we wish to present the controlled stepwise assembly of model complexes for kbPAP that not only contain an unsymmetric coordination environment, but also provide a vacant coordination site on one metal.The unsymmetric ligands H 2 ICIMP and H 2 IPCPMP (Fig. 1) have been shown to stabilize dinuclear species [20-22]. Addition of Fe (ClO 4 ) 3 (1-2 equivalents) to H 2 ICIMP in methanol, or FeCl 3 to an acetonitrile solution of H 4 IPCPMP(PF 6 ) 2 , yields purple solutions. The purple color indicates coordination of the phenolate moieties of the unsymmetric ligands; the color arises from the phenolate? Fe(III) LMCT electronic transition. Deep purple single crystals of the products [Fe(H 2 ICIMP)(H 2 O)Cl][Fe(H 2 ICIMP)(MeOH)Cl] [ClO 4 ] 4 (1) and [Fe(H 2 IPCPMP)Cl 2 ][PF 6 ] (2) [23] could be grown and their structures were determined by X-ray diffraction (Fig. 2) [24]. The structure of 1 contains two separate octahedrally coordinated Fe(ICIMP) molecules, which only differ in the bound solvent molecules (water or methanol). The iron(III) ion is in both cases located in the tetradentate pocket of the ligand, in keeping with the chelate effect. Another reason for the site preference may be the preference of the hard iron(III) ion for the hard carboxylate oxygen donor [25]. It is likely that the chloride ion originates from the ligand, which was isolated as a hydrochloride salt [26]. The crystal structure of 2 (Fig. 2, bottom) reveals an e...