EPR interpretation, magnetism and biological study of a Cu(II) dinuclear complex assisted by a schiff base precursor

A new Cu(II) dinuclear complex, Cu₂L₂ (1) was afforded employing the potentially pentatentate Schiff base precursor H₂L, a refluxed product of o-vanillin and diethylenetriamine in methanol. Complex 1 was systematically characterized by FTIR, UV-Vis, emission and EPR spectrometry. The single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of 1 reveals that the copper atom exhibits a distorted square planar geometry, comprising two pairs of phenolato-O and imine-N donors from two different H₂L ligands. The temperature dependent magnetic interpretation agrees with the existence of weak antiferromagnetic interactions between the bridging dinuclear Cu(II) ions. A considerable body of experimental evidence has been accumulated to elucidate the magneto-structural relationship in this dinuclear Cu(II) complex by DFT computation. Both the ligand and complex 1 exhibit anti-mycobacterial activity and considerable efficacy on M. tuberculosis H₃₇Ra (ATCC 25177) and M. tuberculosis H₃₇Rv (ATCC 25618) strains. The practical applicability of the ligand and complex 1 has been examined in living cells (African Monkey Vero Cells). The MTT assay proves the non-toxicity of the probe up to 100 mg mL^-1. A new homometallic dinuclear Cu(II) complex is afforded with a tetradentate Schiff base precursor. EPR interpretation and temperature dependent magnetic studies show that complex 1 has weak antiferromagnetic coupling and DFT computation is governed to explain the magneto-structural correlation.