Dinuclear and heptanuclear complexes of copper(II) with 7-azaindole ligand: synthesis, characterization, magnetic properties, and biological activity

Abstract

Three new complexes of Cu(II) with 7-azaindole have been synthesized and characterized, a dicopper compound, [Cu(C7H5N2)2(H2O)]2·2CH3CN, 1, and two heptacopper compounds [Cu7(C7H5N2)6(μ3-OH)6(μ2-H2O)2(μ2-CH3OH)4](CH3COO)2·2C7H8·6CH3OH, 2, and [Cu7(C7H5N2)5(CH3COO)(μ3-OH)6(μ2-H2O)4(μ2-CH3OH)2](CH3COO)2, 4. The structure of 2 is monoclinic and it crystallizes in the P21/c space group: a=13.475(4)Å; b=12.945(4)Å; c=23.392(7)Å; β=91.232(6)°. It contains a unique Cu7O12 core in which a central Cu(II) is situated at an inversion center and is bonded to 6 other Cu(II) ions via bridging oxygen atoms from OH(-), H2O, and CH3OH groups. Anionic 7-azaindole ligands bridge between adjacent outer Cu(II) ions and all Cu(II) ions have distorted octahedral coordination geometries. Variable temperature magnetic susceptibility measurements revealed the presence of antiferromagnetic exchange interactions between Cu(II) ions which leads to an S=5/2 ground state at 1.8K. Cytotoxicity and cell proliferation activities of the Cu compounds using human tongue squamous cell carcinoma and normal cells revealed that the compounds stimulated proliferation in both types of cells.

Keywords: 7-Azaindole; Biological activity; Crystal structure; Dinuclear copper; Heptanuclear copper complex; Magnetism.