Ferrocenyl–cymantrenyl hetero-bimetallic chalcones: Synthesis, structure and biological properties

•Synthesis of new ferrocenyl hetero-bimetallic chalcones and their reactivity study.•Single crystal X-ray structural characterizations of two bimetallic chalcones.•Electrochemical properties study and DFT calculation for some chalcone compounds.•Investigation of antimalarial and antibacterial properties for two compounds.

Two new ferrocenyl–cymantrenyl bimetallic chalcones, [(CO)3Mn(η5-C5H4)C(O)CHCH(η5-C5H4)Fe(η5-C5H5)] (1) and [{(CO)3Mn(η5-C5H4)C(O)CHCH(η5-C5H4)}2Fe] (2) have been synthesized. Their reactivity study with triphenylphosphine and bis-(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene led to the isolation of phosphine substituted bimetallic chalcones (3–6). Single crystal X-ray structural characterization for 1 and its phosphine analogue (3) reveals their different conformational identity with anti-conformation for 1, while syn-conformation for 3. Investigation of antimalarial and antibacterial activities was carried out for compounds 1 and 2 against two strains of Plasmodium falciparum (3D7, K1) and four bacterial strains. TD-DFT calculation was performed for compound 1 and electrochemical properties were studied for bimetallic chalcone compounds by cyclic voltammetric technique.

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