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)-(H2vanPheol) and (R)-(H2vanPheol) ligands respectively in the ratio of 1 : 1 of Cu(NO3)2 to (S/R)-(H2vanPheol) 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 [Cu4(S/R-vanPheol)2(S/R-HvanPheol)2(CH3OH)2](NO3)2 complexes as biologically active compounds was assessed in particular regarding their anti-proliferative and anti-microbial properties.