One-pot synthesis, structural elucidation, DNA binding and alkaline phosphatase inhibition studies of zinc(II) complexes with 4-nitrocinnamic acid and ethylenediamine

Abstract

We report one-pot synthesis of zinc(II) complexes with 4-nitrocinnamic acid (HL), [ZnL2(H2O)2] (1), [ZnL2(DMSO)2] (2) and [Zn(en)2(H2O)2]L2(H2O)2 (3), where DMSO = dimethylsulfoxide and en = ethylenediamine. The complexes were prepared by reacting sodium 4-nitrocinnamate with zinc acetate in aqueous medium and characterized by FT-IR, NMR and single crystal X-ray diffraction. The results have shown distorted octahedral geometry for 1 and 3 while tetrahedral for 2 where the carboxylate coordinated bidentate and monodentate in 1 and 2 is uncoordinated in 3, replaced completely by ethylenediamine. The complexes were also screened for their DNA interaction and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) inhibition using cyclic voltammetry, viscometry and UV–visible spectroscopy. All these techniques indicated strong electrostatic binding of the complexes with DNA. The diffusion coefficients of the complexes decreased on DNA addition indicating binding of the complexes with DNA. The binding constants were also calculated through CV and UV spectra. The complexes were screened for ALP inhibition activity as well, where 80% activity was found for 1.