Effect of inhibitors on the catalyzed dehydration of HCO3- by copper(II) complexes re-evaluated

In a recent paper by Cheng and co-workers (Sun, Y.-J.; Zang, L. Z.; Cheng, P.; Lin, H.-K.; Yan, S.-P.; Sun, W.; Liao, D.-Z.; Jiang, Z.-H.; Shen, P.-W. Inorg. Chem. 2003, 42, 508-515), kinetic evidence for inhibitor effects of specific ligands on the catalyzed dehydration of HCO3- by copper(II) complexes of the type [Tp(Ph)]CuX (X- = OH-, N3-, and NCS-) was reported. The analysis of the kinetic data is not correct, and a re-evaluation shows that the claimed catalytic activity of the studied complexes on the dehydration reaction of bicarbonate is indeed questionable. Furthermore, the apparent inhibitor effect of specific selected ligands in the Cu(II) complexes does not seem to exist at all and is based on a wrong interpretation of the kinetic data.