Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.137, No.13, 4503-4516, 2015
Protolytic Cleavage of Hg-C Bonds Induced by 1-Methyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazole-2-selone: Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Mercury Complexes
Multinuclear (H-1, Se-77, and Hg-199) NMR spectroscopy demonstrates that 1-methyl-1,3-dihydro-2H-benzimidazole-2-selone, H(sebenzim(Me)), a structural analogue of the selenoamino acid, selenoneine, binds rapidly and reversibly to the mercury centers of HgX2 (X = Cl, Br, I), while X-ray diffraction studies provide evidence for the existence of adducts of composition [H(sebenzim(Me))](x)HgX2 (X = Cl, x = 2, 3, 4; X = I, x = 2) in the solid state. H(sebenzim(Me)) also reacts with methylmercury halides, but the reaction is accompanied by elimination of methane resulting from protolytic cleavage of the Hg-C bond, an observation that is of relevance to the report that selenoneine demethylates CysHgMe, thereby providing a mechanism for mercury detoxification. Interestingly, the structures of [H(sebenzim(Me))](x)HgX2 exhibit a variety of different hydrogen bonding patterns resulting from the ability of the NH groups to form hydrogen bonds with chlorine, iodine, and selenium.