Synthesis, biological evaluation and corrosion inhibition studies of transition metal complexes of Schiff base

BACKGROUND: The transition metal complexes formed from Schiff base is regarded as leading molecules in medicinal chemistry. Because of the preparative availability and diversity in the structure of central group, the transition metals are important in coordination chemistry. In the present work, we have designed and prepared Schiff base and its metal complexes (MC(1)–MC(4)) and screened them for antimicrobial, anticancer and corrosion inhibitory properties. METHODOLOGY: The synthesized metal complexes were characterized by physicochemical and spectral investigation (UV, IR, (1)H and (13)C-NMR) and were further evaluated for their antimicrobial (tube dilution) and anticancer (SRB assay) activities. In addition, the corrosion inhibition potential was determined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Antimicrobial screening results found complexes (MC(1)–MC(4)) to exhibit less antibacterial activity against the tested bacterial species compared to ofloxacin while the complex MC(1) exhibited greater antifungal activity than the fluconazole. The anticancer activity results found the synthesized Schiff base and its metal complexes to elicit poor cytotoxic activity than the standard drug (5-fluorouracil) against HCT116 cancer cell line. Metal complex MC(2) showed more corrosion inhibition efficiency with high R(ct) values and low C(dl) values. CONCLUSION: From the results, we can conclude that complexes MC(1) and MC(2) may be used as potent antimicrobial and anticorrosion agents, respectively. [Image: see text]