Ruthenium (II) complexes of thiosemicarbazone: Synthesis, biosensor applications and evaluation as antimicrobial agents

• Novel Ru (II) thiosemicarbazone complexes were synthesized and characterized.
• Electrochemical depositions were performed.
• Rigid half-sandwich Ru (II) complex showed enhanced antibacterial activity.

A conformationally rigid half-sandwich organoruthenium (II) complex [(η6-p-cymene)RuClTSCN–S]Cl, (1) and carbonyl complex [Ru(CO)Cl(PPh3)2TSCN–S] (2) have been synthesized from the reaction of [{(η6-p-cymene)RuCl}2(μ-Cl)2] and [Ru(H)(Cl)(CO)(PPh3)3] with thiophene-2-carboxaldehyde thiosemicarbazon (TSC) respectively and both novel ruthenium (II) complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. The peripheral TSC in the complexes acts as an electrochemical coupling unit providing the ability to carry out electrochemical deposition (ED) and to form an electro-deposited film on a graphite electrode surface. The biosensing applicability of complexes 1 and 2 was investigated by using glucose oxidase (GOx) as a model enzyme. Electrochemical measurements at − 0.9 V versus Ag/AgCl electrode by following the ED Ru(II) reduction/oxidation due to from the enzyme activity, in the presence of glucose substrate. The designed biosensor showed a very good linearity for 0.01–0.5 mM glucose. The in vitro antimicrobial activities of complexes 1 and 2 were also investigated against nine bacterial strains and one fungus by the disc diffusion test method. No activity was observed against the Gram-negative strains and fungus, whereas complex 1 showed moderate antibacterial activities against Gram-positive bacterial strains.

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