Recent Advances in Biomimetic Metal Phenolates

The review reports and critically comments on articles mostly published during the period 2012–2015, relevant to phenolate‐containing metal complexes, in the following fields: (i) antioxidants and O2 activation (Section III; copper complexes as models for amine oxidase and phenol‐like antioxidants from the OXICAM family of nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory therapeutics), and (ii) efficient hydrolysis of phosphate diester bonds (Section IV). Remarkably, the review includes several other tasks grouped in Section V about phenolic chelators of iron, models for halophenol scavenger systems, phenols and their metal complexes designed for DNA cleavage, and synthesis of phenolate–metal complexes via radical reactions. The comments focus on the synthesis of complexes and their structural aspects, on spectroscopy, on reaction mechanisms, on computational analyses, and on biological implications of the compounds.