Tetranuclear Cu(ii)-chiral complexes: synthesis, characterization and biological activity

Tetranuclear chiral Cu(ii)-Schiff-base complexes S-1 and R-1, were synthesised using enantiomerically pure (S)-(H(2)vanPheol) and (R)-(H(2)vanPheol) ligands respectively in the ratio of 1 : 1 of Cu(NO(3))(2) to (S/R)-(H(2)vanPheol) in MeOH at room temperature. A pair of polynuclear chiral Cu(ii)-cluster complexes were characterized using single-crystal X-ray diffraction, elemental analysis, infrared and CD spectroscopy. The results revealed the importance of these chiral ligands encouraging the arrangement of copper metal in non-centrosymmetric polar packing. The potential of the novel [Cu(4)(S/R-vanPheol)(2)(S/R-HvanPheol)(2)(CH(3)OH)(2)](NO(3))(2) complexes as biologically active compounds was assessed in particular regarding their anti-proliferative and anti-microbial properties.