Chemical speciation and equilibria of some nucleic acid compounds and their iron(III) complexes

The pH effect on electronic absorption spectra of some biologically active nucleic acid constituents have been studied at room temperature and the mechanism of ionization was explained. These compounds are of two categories (pyrimidines: [barbital; 5,5′-diethyl-barbituric acid], [SBA; 4,6-dihydroxy-2-mercapto-pyrimidin], [NBA; 5-nitro-2,4,6(1H,3H,5H)-pyrimidine trione] and [TU; 2,3-dihydro-2-thioxo-pyrimidin-4(1H)-one]) and (purines: [adenine; 6-amino purine], its [Schiff bases derived from adenine-acetylacetone; (Z)-4-(7H-purin-6-ylimino)pentan-2-one) and adenine-salicylaldehyde; 2-((7H-purin-6-ylimino) methyl) phenol] and its [Azo derived from adenine-resorcinol; 4-((7H-purin-6-yl)-diazenyl) benzene-1,3-diol]. The phenomena of tautomerization assigned different tautomers. Different spectrophotometric methods are applied to evaluate the pK's values that explained with their molecular structures. The interaction of Fe3+ with some selected pyrimidines (barbital, NBA and SBA) was explained using familiar six spectrophotometric methods. The data typified the existence of different absorbing species with the different stoichiometries 1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 2:3. The stability constant of the complexes was computed. More approach was deduced to assign the existence of different species applying the distribution diagrams.

Graphical abstractThe molecular structures of the investigated compounds and its predicted tautomers.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slideHighlights► The pH effect on electronic absorption spectra of some nucleic acid and mechanism of ionization. ► Different spectrophotometric methods are applied to evaluate pK's values of different tautomers. ► Chemical speciation and equilibria of iron complexes applying distribution diagrams. ► The phenomena of tautomerization is assigned were different tautomers are detected.