Design, spectral characterization, thermal, DFT studies and anticancer cell line activities of Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) complexes of Schiff bases derived from 4-amino-5-(pyridin-4-yl)-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol.

Abstract A series of two biologically active Schiff base ligands L 1 , L 2 have been synthesized in equimolar reaction of 4-amino-5-(pyridin-4-yl)-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol with thiophene-2-carbaldehyde and furan-2-carbaldehyde. The synthesized Schiff bases were used for complexation with different metal ions like Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) by using a molar ratio of ligand: metal as 1:1 and 2:1. The characterization of Schiff bases and metal complexes was done by 1 H NMR, UV–Vis, TGA, IR, mass spectrometry and molar conductivity studies. The in DFT studies the geometries of Schiff bases and metal complexes were fully optimized with respect to the energy using the 6-31+g(d,p) basis set. On the basis of the spectral studies an octahedral geometry has been assigned for Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) complexes. The effect of these complexes on proliferation of human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7) and human hepatocellular liver carcinoma cell line (Hep-G2) were studied and compared with those of free ligand. The anticancer cell line results reveal that all metal complexes show moderate to significant % cytotoxicity on cell line HepG2 and MCF-7.