Interaction of metal ions with Schiff bases having N2O2 donor sites: Perspectives on synthesis, structural features, and applications

Abstract

Metal Schiff base complexes are versatile platforms for the development of potential catalysts, potent biomaterials, or luminescent compounds. Transition metals possess a diverse array of properties that can be manipulated to yield promising candidates for the future in various industrial applications. Metal Schiff base complexes represent a class of compounds that have become a field of immense interest because of their intriguing chemical and physical properties and their wide range of applications in several scientific fields. The reaction of transition metal elements with a polydentate Schiff base ligand to form metal complexes offers a good platform for combining the chemical, electronic, magnetic, optical, and redox properties of metal complexes with those of the organic materials, generating new functional materials with useful mechanical, catalytic, thermal and chemical, optoelectronic, structural and magnetic properties. The transition metal complexes can often mimic biological sites; they are, therefore, of great interest as enzyme models. This review discusses the structural features of metal complexes of the first series of transition metals with Schiff bases as ligands having N2O2 coordination sites. Further perspectives concerning the synthesis, structural aspects, characterization, and applications are presented.

Keywords

• metal complexes
• Schiff-bases
• crystal structure
• geometry
• binding modes