Spectroscopic and biological studies of new binuclear metal complexes of a tridentate ONS hydrazone ligand derived from 4-amino-6-methyl-3-thioxo-3,4-dihydro-1,2,4-triazin-5(2H)-one and 4,6-diacetylresorcinol

•A novel tridentate ONS hydrazone ligand was synthesized and characterized.•The hydrazone ligand was allowed to react with a variety of metal ions.•Binuclear complexes were synthesized and characterized.•Molecular modeling of the free ligand and its complexes has been calculated.•The ligand and its metal complexes showed variable antimicrobial activity.

The binuclear hydrazone, H2L, ligand derived from 4-amino-6-methyl-3-thioxo-3,4-dihydro-1,2,4-triazin-5(2H)-one and 4,6-diacetylresorcinol, in the molar ratio 2:1, and its copper(II), nickel(II), cobalt(II), zinc(II), cadmium(II), cerium(III), iron(III), oxovanadium(IV) and dioxouranium(VI) complexes have been synthesized. Structures of the ligand and its metal complexes were characterized by elemental analyses, spectral (infrared, electronic, mass, 1H NMR and ESR) data, magnetic susceptibility, molar conductivity measurements and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The ligand acts as dibasic with two ONS tridentate sites. The bonding sites are the azomethine nitrogen, phenolate oxygen and sulfur atoms. The metal complexes exhibit different geometrical arrangements such as square planer, tetrahedral and octahedral. The Coats–Redfern equation was used to calculate the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for the different thermal decomposition steps of some complexes. The ligand and its metal complexes showed antimicrobial activity towards Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis), Gram-negative bacteria (Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli), yeast (Candida albicans) and fungus (Aspergillus fumigatus). Structural parameters of the ligand and its metal complexes were theoretically computed on the basis of semiempirical PM3 level, and the results were correlated with their experimental data.

Graphical abstractH2L ligand.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide