Phenoxazinone synthase-like activity: Schiff base bound model complexes

In order to get a better life, industrial revolution prevails worldwide since past few centuries but the rapid growth of industrialization in our planet invites different type of severe pollutions and hence environmental damage, which has now impacted on the survival of mankind. Although, the survival of mankind demands physical resourses but these are limited in quantity. In this problematic situation, biomimetics can be a solution. Biomimetics is the study which deals with nature and natural phenomenon to investigate the fundamental mechanisms, and afterwards to apply the concepts in the field of science, technology, and vastly in medical. In this present study, we look into one of the biomimetic enzymes, phenoxazinone synthase. Phenoxazinone synthase is an important class of enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of o-aminophenol to aminophenoxazinone with the activation of molecular dioxygen. Bioinorganic chemists are largely influenced by the nature's design on phenoxazinone synthase and hence they are excited to synthesize this mimics model enzyme to understand the mechanistic pathways properly, so that they can explored its potential applications in the field of bioelectronics, material science, optoelectronics, and biomedical. In the literature, a significant number of Schiff base bound model complexes (about 126) for phenoxazinone synthase-like activity have been synthesized and catalytically characterized by different research groups. A variety of Schiff base ligands (about 68) are employed to prepare such model complexes with different nuclearities in presence of one or more 3d metals like V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn in order to modulate the catalytic activity and to get a better structure property relationship on phenoxazinone synthase activity. This article aims to explore the recent advances, challenges, and opportunities in bioenzymatic catalysis, highlighting its promise to revolutionize the way we create value added compounds and materials.