Synthesis, characterization and antimicrobial activity of a bidentate NS Schiff base of S-benzyl dithiocarbazate and its divalent complexes

The reaction of S-benzyl dithiocarbazate (SBDTC) with 2,4,5-trimethoxybenzaldehyde afforded a bidentate NS Schiff base 1 (benzyl-3-N-(2,4,5-trimethoxyphenylmethylenehydrazine carbodithioate), which on further reaction with M(II) (where M(II) = nickel(II), zinc(II), palladium(II) and copper(II)) in ethanol under reflux yielded bis-chelated inner complexes [ML₂] 2–5 with deprotonated L. The ligand and its complexes were characterized by physicochemical techniques, viz., molar conductance, magnetic susceptibility measurement, IR, NMR, UV–Vis and mass spectroscopic techniques. The crystal structures of 1 and 5 were also determined by single-crystal X-ray crystallography. The crystal structure analysis showed that the ligand exists in its thione tautomeric form. In the complexes, each of the two deprotonated ligands chelated the metal ions through the β-nitrogen and the thione sulfur forming five-membered rings. The copper(II) complex (5) exhibited a square-planar geometry, where the two N₂S₂ chromophores are arranged trans. All the compounds showed strong antibacterial activity against S.-β-hemolyticus, Klebsiella pneumoni, and Escherichia coli. The compounds also showed strong antifungal activity against Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, and Candida albicans with the exception of the palladium(II) complex (4) which showed no activity, while all the compounds showed no activity against Fusarium vasinfectum.