Design, Synthesis, Structural Investigation and Photo Induced Biological Investigations of Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) Complexes Derived from N,O Donor Schiff Bases.

A series of chelated metal complexes, [Co(LI )2 ] (1), [Ni(LI )2 ] (2), [Cu(LI )2 ] (3) [Co(LII )2 ] (4), [Ni(LII )2 ] (5) and [Cu(LII )2 ] (6) were designed and synthesized from newly synthesized Schiff bases, LI  = 2-((E)-(5-(4-fluorophenyl)isoxazol-3-ylimino)methyl)-5-methylphenol and LII  = 2-((E)-(5-(4-fluorophenyl)isoxazol-3-ylimino)methyl)-4-chlorophenol. The synthesized compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), electronic spectroscopy (UV-Vis), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), magnetic susceptibility (µeff ), electron spin resonance spectroscopy (ESR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), and powder X-ray diffraction analysis (P-XRD). The spectral investigations have been clearly suggested 1:2 (metal: ligand) stoichiometric complexes with square planar geometrical arrangement around the metal ion. The thermal gravimmetric analysis (TGA) of these complexes indicates greater thermal stability and various steps involved in thermal decomposition of metal complexes. The binding ability between these metal complexes and calf thymus DNA (CT-DNA) was investigated by UV-Vis, fluorescence spectroscopy and viscometric experiments, which disclosed that, the complexes interacted to CT-DNA via an intercalation binding mode. The cleavage property of metal complexes against pBR322 DNA has been explored by gel electrophoresis technique mediated by UV-illumination and H2 O2 , showed momentous cleavage activity. Antioxidant activity of all complexes was determined by DPPH free radical scavenging experiment and showed prominent antioxidant activity. Further, the antibacterial and antifungal activities of all compounds were screened against bacterial and fungal strains via in-vitro disc diffusion method. These studies revealed that the complexes showed comparatively more antimicrobial activity than free ligands against tested microbial strains.