Chapter 3: The Role of Copper in Biocatalysis

Copper-containing enzymes are involved in many biological processes such as oxygen transport, electron transfer, oxidation–reduction reactions, oxygenation reactions, etc. These functions and reactions are conducted at the various types of copper active centers, whose structures, physicochemical properties, and reactivity have been investigated in detail by synthetic bioinorganic chemists using simple model complexes not only to elucidate enzymatic reaction mechanisms but also to develop new catalysts and functional materials. This chapter summarizes the recent studies of the catalytic functions of copper-containing metalloenzymes and their model complexes.