Metallo-organic complexes as precursors for nanostructured metal oxides and their studies on protein interactions and drug loading characteristics

Abstract

In the current study, we have synthesized and characterized Schiff base copper and zinc complexes based on (E)-2,4-dichloro-6-(((2-hydroxy-4-methyl-phenyl)-imino) methyl) phenol ligand obtained from 3,5-dichloro salicylaldehyde and 2-amino,4-methyl phenol. The interactions of these complexes with the protein, Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) were monitored through the fluorescence spectral technique. The quenching of fluorescence with the incremental addition of the ligand and the complexes provides important information regarding the binding propensity of the tested compounds with the protein. Furthermore, these metal complexes are used as precursors to obtain the pure phases of copper oxide and zinc oxide nanostructures by the thermal decomposition method. The phase formation of the metal oxides was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction (p-XRD) technique. The metal oxides prepared from their respective metal complexes have unique characteristics in terms of particle size, morphology, and band gap and are compared with the literature reports based on conventional solid-state methods. The studies on the interaction of the prepared metal oxide and curcumin with and without BSA, the drug carrier, have been investigated and the drug loading capacity is assessed.