The scientific interest in developing the advanced metal based compounds to inhibit and control bacterial infections is continuously rising. Keeping in view their pharmacological significance, two new bioactive symmetrical phenylenediamine mono- and bis-Schiff bases, 2-{[(4-aminophenyl)imino]methyl}-6-methoxyphenol (L1) and 2,2'-{benzene-1,2-diylbis[nitrilomethylylidene]}bis(6-methoxyphenol) (L2) have been synthesized and characterized by using physical techniques, spectral methods, elemental and DFT based computational analysis with B3LYP/6-311++G(d, p) basis set. Furthermore, the synthesized ligands were complexed with VO, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn ions in ratio [M:L,1:2 and 1:1], respectively. All the complexes exhibited significant antibacterial action against all tested bacterial strains. But overall, the zinc complexes possessed higher antibacterial activity. These results concluded that metal complexes might be promising induction in the upcoming time for medical purposes.
Keywords: Symmetrical phenylenediamine mono and bis-Schiff bases; antibacterial activity; bidentate and tetradentate; chelation; computational study.