Direct observation of carbon monoxide binding to metal-porphyrines
Monday, January 10, 2011 - 11:35
in Physics & Chemistry
What makes carbon monoxide so toxic is that it blocks the binding site for oxygen in hemoglobin. This very mechanism, if better understood, could be used to implement sensors to warn against carbon monoxide. Munich-based physicists, in collaboration with theorists in Lyon and Barcelona, have taken an important step by deciphering the mechanisms for binding of gas molecules to iron and cobalt porphyrins. They present their findings, and the first images, in Nature Chemistry.