New ruthenium(III) complexes containing tetradentate Schiff bases and their antibacterial activity

Ruthenium(III) complexes, [RuX(EPh3)(LL')] (X = Cl, Br; E = P, As; LL'-acactet, dbm-tet, dbm-o-ph), have been synthesised by reacting [RuCl3(PPh3)(3)], [RuCl3(AsPh3)(3)], [RuBr3(AsPh3)(3)] or [RuBr3(PPh3)(2)(MeOH)] with tetradentate Schiff bases such as bis(acetylacetone)tetramethylenediimine (H(2)acactet), bis(dibenzoylmethane)tetramethylenediimine (H(2)dbmtet) and bis(dibenzoylmethane)-o-phenylenediimine (H(2)dbm-o-ph). All the complexes have been characterised by elemental analysis, i.r., electronic spectra, e.p.r., magnetic moment and cyclic voltammetric data and an octahedral structure has been tentatively proposed. These new complexes have been tested for their antibacterial activities.