Experimental electronic structure of copper complexes with biphenyldiimino dithioether – model of blue copper proteins

Abstract The experimental electron density distribution in two coordination compounds, one with a central atom Cu(I) and the other with Cu(II), coordinated by the same biphenyldiimino dithioether-type ligand (bite) has been obtained from high-resolution X-ray diffraction data to model the possible electron predisposition for the redox reaction in blue copper proteins. The bite ligand has been adapted to the conformation required by the central atom