In continuation to our work on biologically active material, some new ferrocenyl esters were prepared by condensation of 4-ferrocenyl phenol (ROH) with ferrocenyl dicarboxylic acid chlorides (DCC) at low temperature. The synthesized compounds (E1-E9) were characterized by analyzing their physical properties, FT-IR, 1H-NMR, UV-visible spectroscopic and cyclic voltammetric studies. The DPPH free radical scavenging assay was performed to explore their potential as antioxidant which showed that the E1 had maximum scavenging ability (77.11%) whereas E3 showed minimum (52%) compared with the standard. Cyclic voltammetric studies indicated that these compounds were electroactive in potential window of 2.0-0.0V. Binding mode found in these esters was an electrostatic interaction which is considered as strongest amongst all. Therefore, these compounds are considered to have DNA-binding capability and are potential DNA binders.


Syeda Anam Bukhari, Asghari Gul, Zareen Akhter and Amna Bashir