Synthesis and Characterization of Substituted Iron(II) Sulfonamides

Metal complexes play important roles in biological systems. For this reason, synthesizing metal complexes that mimic the structure and activity of these complexes is of interest. Additionally, application of these mimicked metal complexes could prove useful in areas such as tumor neuropathology, cell signaling, and as broad spectrum cytotoxic agents. In particular, I studied the synthesis of substituted quinoline ligands, and their corresponding iron(II) complexes. Quinoline derivatives have been previously studied for fungitoxicity, as antimalarials, and in neuronal signaling. Similar metal complexes have also shown significant cytotoxicity against human breast cancer cells (MCF7 cell line). In a multiple step organic process, three different substituted quinoline derivatives were synthesized, and various types of spectroscopic analyses were used to characterize the resulting products. One of these derivatives was used as a ligand and anaerobically reacted with iron(II) to produce the corresponding six coordinate complex containing two bidentate quinoline ligands and two coordinating solvent molecules. The results of the organic syntheses provided a safer means to employ the Skraup quinoline synthesis than previously reported, and the synthesis of previously unreported quinoline derivatives.