Oxidation of procarbazine in the presence of Ti(IV).

The air oxidation of procarbazine in the presence of Ti(IV) was examined as a model system for the effects titanium has on oxidative processes and intermediates involving molecular oxygen. It was found that Ti(IV) inhibited oxidation when the substrate, procarbazine, was coordinated to titanium. This inhibition was most prominent (reduction of overall rate constant by a factor of 10(2)) in its interference with Cu(II) catalyzed oxidation of the substrate whole oxidation by the neutral species O2 was only slightly inhibited (factor of 2). However, when Mn(II) was used to catalyze the oxidation of procarbazine by air, titanium enhanced the catalytic effect of Mn(II) by a factor of 10(2). This enhancement was found to be due to Ti(IV) catalysis of the air oxidation of Mn(II), and the effect was found to be inhibited by catalase but not superoxide dismutase or peroxidase. These results are discussed in terms of a Ti(IV) ability to activate molecular oxygen and its ability to form oxygen free-radical complexes.