Syntheses, structures and properties of dinickel(II) macrocyclic complexes with two 2-thiophenoethyl pendant arms

Three dinickel(II) macrocyclic complexes [Ni2L(mu-OAc)]ClO4 center dot X (L = L-1, L-2 and L-3) with two 2-thiophenoethyl pendant arms, have been synthesized by cyclocondensation between N,N-bis(3-aminopropyl)-2-thiophenoethylamine and 2,6-diformyl-4-R-phenol (where R = Me, Cl and F and X = MeOH, 2MeCN and H2O, respectively), in the presence of nickel(II) ions. The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, spectroscopic methods and X-ray diffraction techniques. The geometry around both of the Ni(II) ions in each molecule is a slightly distorted octahedral and the thiopheno groups do not coordinate to the Ni(II) ions, resulting that the complexes display contorted saddle-form configurations. The distances between the Ni center dot center dot center dot Ni centers for the complexes are 3.145, 3.171 and 3.155 angstrom, respectively. The influences of the substituted groups R in the benzene rings of the macrocyclic units on the structure, electrochemistry, magnetism, cleavage and antibacterial property to DNA have been investigated. The ES-MS results of the complexes confirm that [Ni2L](2+) species in methanol solution are very stable because all the peaks in ES-MS spectra contain this kind of units. The reduction potentials of the complexes shift towards anode upon increasing the drawing electronic ability of substituted groups. Magnetic measurements in the 2300 K range indicate weak antiferromagnetism for the dinuclear Ni(II) complexes and the magnetic exchange interactions enhance with the decrease of the Ni-Ni distances. These complexes exhibit cleavage activities towards plasmid pBR322 DNA and antibacterial activities. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.