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Abstract

Binuclear, mixed valence copper complexes with a [Cu^+1.5, Cu^+1.5] redox state and S = 1/2 can be stabilized with rigid azacryptand ligands. In this system the unpaired electron is delocalized equally over the two copper ions, and it is one of the very few synthetic models for the electron mediating Cu_A site of nitrous oxide reductase and cytochrome c oxidase. The spatial and electronic structures of the copper complex in frozen solution were obtained from the magnetic interactions, namely the g-tensor and the ^63,65Cu, ¹⁴N, ²H, and ¹H hyperfine couplings, in combination with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The magnetic interactions were determined from continuous wave (CW) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), pulsed electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR), two-dimensional TRIPLE, and hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy (HYSCORE) carried out at W-band or/and X-band frequencies. The DFT calculated g and Cu hyperfine values were in good agreement with the experimental values showing that the structure in solution is indeed close to that of the optimized structure. Then, the DFT calculated hyperfine parameters were used as guidelines and starting points in the simulations of the various experimental ENDOR spectra. A satisfactory agreement with the experimental results was obtained for the ¹⁴N hyperfine and quadrupole interactions. For ¹H the DFT calculations gave good predictions for the hyperfine tensor orientations and signs, and they were also successful in reproducing trends in the magnitude of the various proton hyperfine couplings. These, in turn, were very useful for ENDOR signals assignments and served as constraints on the simulation parameters.