Abstract:
Traditional anticancer drugs have severe side effects such as those based on platinum. Therefore, other metal centres such as gold, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium and iridium are considered as potential anticancer alternatives with less side effects. Often research is framed based on targeted drug delivery to lead to more effective results and less side effects. This project focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of new organometallic complexes by using NHCs and pyridine ligands as well as the introduction of bioactive ancillary ligands. These were chosen due to their versatility and stability of their coordination compounds. Moreover, literature indicates that they are active against tumours. In total, four different series of complexes were synthesised and characterised by various methods. First, a carbene ligand series was based on a pyridinyl imidazolium scaffold to form bidentate compounds. New ruthenium and rhodium complexes were successfully synthesised and characterised by 1D/2D NMR spectroscopy, and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Some of the structures were verified by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Another series of the pro-carbene ligands were functionalised with a triphenyl phosphonium group to form monodentate ruthenium and rhodium complexes. Two structures were verified by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Moreover, the N-coordinating ligand based on triphenyl(pyridine-4-ylmethyl)phosphonium hexafluorophosphate was chosen. The ruthenium and rhodium complexes were synthesised and characterised by 1D/2D NMR and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). The last one of the ligand series was N,O-chelating ligands based on the 8-oxyquinolinato platform. The ruthenium complex was synthesised and characterised by 1D/2D NMR and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS).
