Acetate bridged dinuclear Cu(II) complexes with ferrocene based benzimidazol ligands: Synthesis, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, DFT calculations and catecholase activity

Abstract

Two new benzimidazole ligands, 1-[(E)-ferrocenylmethylidenehydrazino]-2-{5,6-dichloro-2-[(o-chloro-phenyl)methyl]-1,3-diaza-1H-inden-1-yl}-1-ethanone (1) and 1-[(E)-ferrocenylmethylidenehydrazino]-2-{2-[p-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]-1,3-diaza-1H-inden-1-yl}-1-ethanone (2), and their copper(II) complexes (1a, 2a) have been prepared and characterized by IR, UVVis, NMR, TG/DTA and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. DFT-based molecular orbital energy calculations and the electrochemical behavior of the compounds have been also studied to explain the redox potentials of the compounds. the catecholase-mimetic activities of the complexes have been investigated by monitoring the formation of 3,5-di-tert-butyl-benzoquinone from 3,5-di-tert-butylcatechol. the catalytic activity of 1a is slightly lower than that of 2a, and the correlation between catalytic activity and electrochemical behaviors of the compounds has been established. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.