Syntheses, structures and urease inhibitory activities of mononuclear cobalt(III) and 1D cobalt(II) complexes with ligands derived from 3-formylsalicylic acid

[CoIII(L1)2] (NO3) 1, image 2 (where L1 = (3-carboxysalicylidene)-(2-hydroxyaminoethylamine), L2 = (3-carboxysalicylidene)-phenylmethylamine) were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, single crystal X-ray diffraction and tested for inhibitive enzymatic activity on Jack Bean Urease(jbU). 1 is a mononuclear complex and the center cobalt atom is chelated by donors of N4O2 possessing a well defined octahedral configuration, and 2 contains two environmentally different cobalt centers, by the μ2 carboxyl groups bridging the repeat units extending into a one-dimension configuration. Both of the mononuclear neutral molecules 1 and polymeric (1D chain) 2 are future connected via huge inter- and intra-molecular O-H⋯O and C–H⋯O bonds exhibiting a network structure. The enzymatic activity study indicated that the two complexes are showed potent inhibitions against jbU, with IC50 20.31 ± 0.53 μM of 1 and 22.24 ± 0.67 μM of 2, which are about 2 times more than 42.12 ± 0.08 μM of acetohydroxamic acid as positive reference.