Products of thiocyanate peroxidation: properties and reaction mechanisms.

The lactoperoxidase-catalyzed oxidation of thiocyanate (SCN-) was studied in the pH range 3-8. The ultraviolet spectra of the oxidation products, the hypothiocyanite ion, OSCN- (at pH 8) and hypothiocyanous acid, HOSCN (at pH 3), were recorded. The absorbance maxima for OSCN- and HOSCN were observed at 220 and 240 nm, respectively. The extinction coefficients for OSCN- and HOSCN were determined to be 3870 (at 220 nM) and 95 M-1 X cm-1 (at 240 nM), respectively. Pure solutions of OSCN- (at pH 8) and HOSCN (at pH 3) were stable, but the mixtures of these two species at intermediate pH values were unstable. The decomposition could be divided into two periods, an initial period of rapid increase in oxidizing equivalents and a second period of decomposition. Decomposition during the second period followed first-order kinetics, and the pH-dependence of the apparent first-order rate constant was consistent with a decomposition mechanism which involved HOSCN. The first-order rate constant for this step was estimated to be 6 X 10(-3) s-1 at 37 degrees C.