Catalytic reactions by iron-sulfur complexes.

Nonheme iron-sulfur proteins are implicated as electron carriers in diverse processes of cell metabolism, and ferredoxins and rubredoxin form an important and comprehensive class of such proteins. The abilities of these proteins to act as electron carriers are related to their iron-sulfur active sites, which have several different oxidation levels interrelated by one electron transfer reactions. We have been attempting to develop novel and selective reductants for use in organic reactions. The iron-sulfur complexes are expected to be useful catalysts in organic reductions, because the abilities of the complexes as reductants are related to their redox potentials, which depend on the ligands, and the reactivities of the complexes should be easily controllable by replacement of the ligands. In this paper the catalytic activities of various synthetic iron-sulfur complexes in organic reactions are described.