It is well known that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) plays an important role in the life process since it contains all the genetic information for cellular function.1) Investigations of the interactions of DNA with transition metal complexes are basis to design new types of the pharmaceutical molecules to elucidate the mechanism involved in the site specific recognition of DNA and to determine the principles governing the recognition.2,3) Schiff bases exhibit remarkable biological activity and play an important role in bioinorganic chemistry. For example, the Cr(III) complexes can lead to DNA damage, plasmid cleavage, and protein cleavage. 4,5) The acid hydrazides possess R-CO-NH-NH 2 , a class of Schiff base, their corresponding aroylhydrazones, R-CO-NH-NϭCH-RЈ, and the dependence of their mode of chelation with transition metal ions present in the living system have been of significant interest. 6) Various coordination compounds of aroylhydrazones have been reported to act as enzyme inhibitors and are useful due to their pharmacological applications. [7][8][9] Nickel is recognized as an essential trace element for bacteria, plants, animals, and humans, though the role of this metal in animal biochemistry is still not well defined.10) These facts encouraged us to synthesize a novel ligand NЈ,NЈ
Results and DiscussionSynthesis and General Properties Complex 1 was prepared in high yield from reactions of the Schiff base ligand H 2 L in the presence of Ni(ClO 4 ) 2 · 6H 2 O. The UV-Vis investigations revealed that the spectra of the Ni(II) complex in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution have remained unaltered for the solutions and its molar conductance values have no obvious change for very freshly prepared and for over the whole experiment (24 h). It indicated that the Ni(II) complex is quite stable in solution. The molar conductivity data is in accordance with the 1 : 4 type electrolyte.Crystal Structure The crystal and experimental data is presented in Table 1. The selected bond distances and angles are presented in Table 2. Single-crystal X-ray analyses revealed that complex 1 crystallized in the space group I4/m consisting of the cationic square, [Ni 4 H 4 L 4 ] 4ϩ . As shown in Fig. 2, in which the ligand H 2 L coordinates to metal ion, it becomes negatively charged, HL Ϫ , and the ligands were divided into pairs, one of which lies above and the other below the mean plane through the four metal ions, giving a novel [2ϫ2] grids. The four Ni(II) atoms are distorted octahedral coordinated by two acyloxy oxygen, two amide, and two pyridine N atoms, evidenced by the angles O1-Ni1-N1 (154.3(2)°) and O1-Ni1-N2 (76.8(2)°). The distortion mainly originates from the extremely rigid binding pockets present within each ligand, with two coplanar five-membered chelate rings formed upon complexation, including one to the smaller-sized pyrazolate heterocycle, and the resulting proximity of the parallel ligand strands in the very compact grid array. So, four Ni(II) atoms occupy the corners of a [2ϫ2] grid with edge lengths Ni...