Using Kinetics to Study the Stabilization of Reactive Hydrosulfide by Supramolecular Receptors

Abstract

Hydrosulfide (HS-) has numerous biological and physiological implications given its roles as the third endogenously produced gasotransmitter. However, HS- is extremely reactive making it difficult to study. In this work, we aim to analyze how the presence of stabilizing forces from a supramolecular receptor influences the kinetics of HS- in a nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) reaction within organic media. We hypothesize that the non-covalent interactions from the supramolecular receptor will stabilize and reduce the reactivity of HS-. We will use UV-Vis to monitor the reaction over time and create non-linearized plots to obtain kinetic information. This study can provide insight into how our bodies might stabilize HS- through non-covalent interactions and give us a better understanding of the behavior of this species in biological systems.