Photodissociation of Co-C bond in methyl- and ethylcobalamin: an insight from TD-DFT calculations.

The mechanism of Co-C bond photodissociation in methylcobalamin (MeCbl) and ethylcobalamin (EtCbl) has been examined by means of time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). The present contribution extends our recent study (J. Phys. Chem. B 2007, 111, 2419-2422) where relevant excited states involved in the photolysis of MeCbl have been identified. To obtain reliable structural models, the high-resolution crystal structure of MeCbl was used as the source of initial coordinates. The full MeCbl was simplified by replacing the corrin side chains by H atoms and the resulting geometry was optimized. The model of EtCbl was generated from the simplified structure of MeCbl by replacing methyl group with ethyl. For both models, the low-lying singlet and triplet excited states have been computed along the Co-C coordinate at TD-DFT/BP86/6-31G(d) level of theory. These calculations reveal that the photodissociation process is mediated by the repulsive 3(sigmaCo-C-->sigmaCo-C) triplet state. The overall mechanism of photodissociation for both systems is similar but energetic details are different, reflecting the difference in Co-C bond strength in MeCbl and EtCbl. In both cases the key intermediate involved in Co-C bond photodissociation is identified as first excited state (S1). The S1 intermediate has mixed character: it can be described as predominantly dCo-->picorrin metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) state with contribution from sigma bond to corrin charge transfer (SBLCT) where upon electronic excitation the electron density shifts from the axial NIm-Co-C bonding to corrin ligand. The optimized geometry of the S1 indicates that the structure of the corrin remains essentially unchanged in comparison to ground state (S0). The major structural change occurs in the NIm-Co-C moiety, which becomes bent with elongated Co-C bond in S1 state. Finally, it is proposed that the photolysis of Co-C bond is in line with the mechanism of heme-CO photolysis, where participation of the dFe-->pi*porphyrin has been suggested.