Comparison of two different approaches for determination of biomimetic activity of selected copper complexes

Abstract

In this article, an evaluation of the catecholase activity of the recently synthesized copper complexes towards dopamine is reported based on a comparison of the performance of two different techniques – UV-Vis spectrophotometry and hydrodynamic amperometry. The results obtained were confronted with those published for natural tyrosinase enzyme (isolated from mushroom 'Agaricus bisporus') and defined by Michaelis–Menten kinetics model. Besides a finding of comparable catalytic activity for the copper catalysts tested, it has to be emphasised that all the measurements have been performed in methanol, in which tyrosinase enzyme loses its catalytic activity.