Zinc(II) Complexes: Synthesis, Characterization, Crystal Structure, and Antifungal Activity

Metal ions play a main role in controlling the behavior of many biologically important macromolecules. Nevertheless, a metal ion alone is not sufficient to achieve the required range of functions, by changing the metal ion; the biological systems can achieve a wide range of the various functions [1]. Zinc is an essential cofactor in thousands of proteins. As one of the most prevalent transition metal cofactors in biological systems, it plays structural, signaling, and regulatory roles and is found in all six classes of enzymes [2]. Many reports on synthesis, characterization, and application of zinc complexes in various biological fields are found in the literature [3,4]. Furthermore, some zinc complexes have shown the remarkable antimicrobial activities as the antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory [5]. Here, we report the synthesis, and structural characterization of some new zinc(II) complexes with N,O-chelating ligands by elemental analysis, spectroscopic techniques and single crystal X-ray structure determination. Moreover, the antifungal and antibacterial activities of these synthesized complexes were investigated against some fungi, and also some Gram-negative and positive bacteria. These complexes showed the efficient antifungal and antibacterial activities. Further, the results exhibited that the complexation of the ligands to zinc center result in the improvement of the antifungal and antibacterial properties in comparison with zinc(II) ion.