Half‐sandwich ruthenium(II) and iridium(III) complexes of imidazole based phosphinite ligands: antioxidant and antibacterial activities as well as electrochemical properties

Abstract Ruthenium(II) and iridium(III) complexes of phosphinites including imidazole moiety were synthesized and characterized by microanalysis, IR, MS, and NMR spectroscopies. Antibacterial activity against Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacterial strains was assessed in all complexes. The highest radical scavenging (72.2 %) was obtained for [3‐(3‐chloro‐2‐({[dichloro(η 6 ‐benzene)ruthenium]diphenylphosphanyl}oxy)propyl)‐1‐butyl‐1H‐imidazol‐3‐ium chloride], 4 at 200 μg/mL concentration, while [3‐(3‐chloro‐2‐({[dichloro(η 5 ‐pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)‐iridium]diphenylphosphanyl}oxy)pro‐pyl)‐1‐butyl‐1H‐imidazol‐3‐ium chloride], 6 demonstrated the highest antibacterial activity as 13 mm inhibition zone against E. hirea . Furthermore, optical and electrochemical featured of metal complexes containing imidazole phosphinite were investigated utilizing UV–vis absorption and cyclic voltammetry techniques. Consequently, all complexes can be proposed as metal‐based charge convertible phosphinite complexes which may be employed as new generation and synergistic Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) materials.