Synthesis, crystal structure, magnetic properties and DFT study of dinuclear Ni(II) complex with the condensation product of 2-quinolinecarboxaldehyde and Girard’s T reagent

Synergy of experimental and computational chemistry: structure and biological activity of Zn(II) hydrazone complexes

In this paper, three different Zn(II) complexes with (E)-2-(2-(1-(6-bromopyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)hydrazinyl)-N,N,N-trimethyl-2-oxoethan-1-aminium chloride (HLCl) have been synthesized and characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, IR and NMR spectroscopy. All complexes are mononuclear, with the ligand (L) coordinated in a deprotonated formally neutral zwitterionic form via NNO donor set atoms. Complex 1 forms an octahedral geometry with the composition [ZnL2](BF4)2, while complexes 2 [ZnL(NCO)2] and 3 [ZnL(N3)2] form penta-coordinated geometry. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to enhance our understanding of the structures of the synthesized complexes and the cytotoxic activity of the complexes was tested against five human cancer cell lines (HeLa, A549, MDA-MB-231, K562, LS 174T) and normal human fibroblasts MRC-5. Additionally, antibacterial and antifungal activity of these complexes was tested against a panel of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, two fungal strains, and a yeast strain. It is noteworthy that all three complexes show selective antifungal activity comparable to that of amphotericin B. Molecular docking analysis predicted that geranylgeranyl pyrophosphate synthase, an enzyme essential for sterol biosynthesis, is the most likely target for inhibition by the tested complexes.

Magneto-structural studies on a number of doubly end-on cyanate and azide bridged dinuclear nickel(ii) complexes with {N3O} donor Schiff base ligands

Two new doubly μ _1,1-N₃ bridged (1 and 3) and six new doubly μ _1,1-NCO bridged Ni^II complexes (2, 4-8) with six different N₃O donor Schiff base ligands have been synthesized and magneto-structurally characterized. All these neutral complex molecules are isostructural and constitute edge sharing bioctahedral structures. Magnetic studies revealed that all these complexes exhibit ferromagnetic interaction through bridging pseudohalides with ferromagnetic coupling constant J being significantly higher for azide-bridged complexes than that of the cyanate analogues. This is consistent with the literature reported data and also the presence of polarizable π systems and two different N and O donor atoms in cyanate ion, rendering it a poor magnetic coupler in comparison to azide analogues. Although, the magneto-structurally characterized doubly μ _1,1-N₃ bridged Ni^II complexes are abundant, only few such complexes with μ _1,1-bridging NCO^- ions are reported in the literature. Remarkably, addition of these six new examples in this ever-growing series of doubly μ _1,1-NCO bridged systems gives us an opportunity to analyse the precise magneto-structural correlation in this system, showing a general trend in which the J value increases with an increase in bridging angles. Therefore, the high degree of structural and magnetic resemblances by inclusion of six new examples in this series is the major achievement of the present work. An elaborate DFT study was performed resulting in magneto-structural correlation showing that nature and value of the J-parameter is defined not only by Ni-N_b-Ni bond angles, but an important role is also played by the Ni1-Ni2-N_b-X_t dihedral angle (N_b and X_t are bridging N and terminal N or O atom of bridging ligands, respectively).

A trinuclear nickel(II) Schiff base complex with phenoxido- and acetato-bridges: combined experimental and theoretical magneto-structural correlation

We describe the synthesis and characterization of a new trinuclear Ni(ii) Schiff base complex of formula [Ni3(L)2(NCS)2(OAc)2(CH3OH)2] (1) where HL is the 1 : 1 condensation product of 2-picolylamine and o-vanillin. The crystal structure of complex 1 shows that the two terminal Ni(ii) ions are connected to the central one through a phenoxido- and a syn-syn acetato bridge, giving rise to a very bent configuration in the Ni3-core. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show the presence of a weak antiferromagnetic coupling with J = -3.22(2) cm-1. We also report a magneto-structural correlation, performed with all the magnetically characterized Ni(ii) trimers with similar bridges, showing a linear dependence between the J value and the dihedral angle (θ) between the planes containing the Ni-O-Ni and the carboxylate bridges. The super-exchange interaction is investigated by extensive density functional calculations within the broken symmetry approximation which show good agreement with the experimental data. The analysis of the spin density distribution and the shape of the magnetically active single occupied molecular orbitals (SOMO) provide a mechanism of exchange coupling through the bridging groups.

Tuneable structures and magnetic properties of pseudohalo-bridged dinuclear Ni(ii) complexes derived from {N4} and {N3O} donor ligands

Six new dinickel(ii) complexes with different bridges and bridging motifs showing overall diverse magnetic interactions (AF to F interactions) have been discussed and rationalized.

Synthesis, Characterization, Catalytic Activity, and DFT Calculations of Zn(II) Hydrazone Complexes

Two new Zn(II) complexes with tridentate hydrazone-based ligands (condensation products of 2-acetylthiazole) were synthesized and characterized by infrared (IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and single crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The complexes 1, 2 and recently synthesized [ZnL³(NCS)₂] (L³ = (E)-N,N,N-trimethyl-2-oxo-2-(2-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)hydrazinyl)ethan-1-aminium) complex 3 were tested as potential catalysts for the ketone-amine-alkyne (KA²) coupling reaction. The gas-phase geometry optimization of newly synthesized and characterized Zn(II) complexes has been computed at the density functional theory (DFT)/B3LYP/6–31G level of theory, while the highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO and LUMO) energies were calculated within the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) at B3LYP/6-31G and B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) levels of theory. From the energies of frontier molecular orbitals (HOMO–LUMO), the reactivity descriptors, such as chemical potential (μ), hardness (η), softness (S), electronegativity (χ) and electrophilicity index (ω) have been calculated. The energetic behavior of the investigated compounds (1 and 2) has been examined in gas phase and solvent media using the polarizable continuum model. For comparison reasons, the same calculations have been performed for recently synthesized [ZnL³(NCS)₂] complex 3. DFT results show that compound 1 has the smaller frontier orbital gap so, it is more polarizable and is associated with a higher chemical reactivity, low kinetic stability and is termed as soft molecule.