A comparative study of the metal binding behavior of alanine based bis-thiourea isomers

Imran Fakhar; Bohari M Yamin; Siti Aishah Hasbullah

doi:10.1186/s13065-017-0304-2

A comparative study of the metal binding behavior of alanine based bis-thiourea isomers

Chem Cent J. 2017 Aug 4;11(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s13065-017-0304-2.

Authors

Imran Fakhar¹, Bohari M Yamin¹, Siti Aishah Hasbullah²

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
² School of Chemical Sciences and Food Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. aishah80@ukm.edu.my.

Abstract

Two new symmetrical bis-thiourea, 2,2'-[{(terephthaloylbis(azanediyl)bis(carbonothioyl) bis(azanediyl)}dipropanoic acid] (1A) and 3,3'-[{(terephthaloylbis(azanediyl)bis (carbonothioyl)bis(azanediyl)} dipropanoic acid] (1B) were synthesized by the reaction of terephthaloyl chloride with α- and β-alanine in good yields. Their binding properties were investigated with various metal cations using UV-Vis titration experiments. Both isomers exhibited effective binding with Ag⁺, Cu²⁺, Hg²⁺, Pb²⁺, Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ cations. However, in the presence of other cations, such as Na⁺, Ni²⁺, Co²⁺, Cd²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Sn²⁺, Al³⁺, and anions tetrabutylammonium Cl^- and H₂PO₄^-, no interaction occurred. Both isomers displayed similar trends towards binding with metal cations.

Keywords: Binding study; Bis-thiourea isomers; Metal cations; α- and β-alanine.