Synthesis and Spectroscopy of Iron and Ruthenium Complexes

Chemistry

Newton, Will

Wachter, Erin

English

Coordination complexes have become increasingly more important to anticancer studies within the past few years due to their capacity to bind with DNA through multiple methods. Metal polypyridyl complexes have been shown to bind with DNA through electrostatics or intercalation with high affinities depending on the ligands present.1 The synthesis of various polypydriyl ligands was performed and characterized through NMR, and then were attached to metal centers to form target coordination complexes. Of particular interest were the analogous ruthenium(II) tris-2,2-bipyridine and iron(II) tris-2,2-bipyridine complexes, which were successfully synthesized, analyzed through NMR and absorbance spectroscopy, and the different characteristics of these complexes were observed.