Antioxidant activity of copper(Il) complexes with salicylaldehyde derivatives and α-diimines

Abstract

In this work are presented the antioxidant activities of four copper(Il) complexes. Our complexes contain a combination of two types of ligands salicylaldehyde derivatives (methyl 3-formyl-4-hydroxybenzoate (HL1) or 4-(diethylamino)salicylaldehyde (HL2)) and a-diimines (bipyridine (bipy) or phenanthroline (phen)). Complex I is a dinuclear Cu* complex containing L1 and bipy ligands, complex 2 is dinuclear and contains L1 and phen ligands, complex 3 is a mononuclear Cu* complex containing L2 and bipy ligands, whereas complex 4 is dinuclear and containsL2 and phen ligands. Based on IC, values, it was established that complex 4 exhibits an excellent antioxidant activity, which is at the same time the highest among all four complexes (Table 1). Complex 3 exhibits moderate activity, whereas complexes 1 and 2 show the lowest antioxidant activity. All four complexes have better antioxidant activity than starting compounds