Abstract: Copper complexes of the active-oxygen species such as superoxide, peroxide, and oxyl have been invoked as the key reactive intermediates not only in a variety of biological oxidation and oxygenation reactions but also in the copper-catalyzed oxidation reactions in synthetic organic chemistry and catalytic oxidation chemistry. In this seminar, our efforts to develop structural and functional models of mononuclear copper reaction centers of copper monooxygenases will be introduced. The topics are as follows.

1) Modeling ‘histidine brace’ of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMO)

2) Controlling reactivity of cupric end-on superoxide complexes

3) Reactivity of tetrahedral copper(II)-methoxide complex