An assessment of the free radical scavenging potential
of 4-amino-5-phenyl-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol
(AT) and 4-amino-5-(4-pyridyl)-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol (AP) involved
a combination of experimental methodologies and theoretical calculations.
In the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH•) assay,
AT exhibited an heightened efficacy in scavenging DPPH• radicals compared to AP. This was evidenced by the notably lower
IC50DPPH value observed for AT (1.3 × 10–3 ± 0.2 × 10–3 M) in comparison to AP
(2.2 × 10–3 ± 0.1 × 10–3 M). Similarly, in the 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate)
(ABTS•
+) test, AT exhibited superior
ability in neutralizing ABTS•+ free radical cations
compared to AP, with the computed IC50ABTS values of 4.7
× 10–5 ± 0.1 × 10–5 M for AT and 5.5 × 10–5 ± 0.2 ×
10–5 M for AP. Density functional theory served
as the tool for evaluating the correlation between structural attributes
and the antioxidant efficacy of the studied molecules. The findings
highlighted the flexibility of hydrogen atoms within NH and NH2 groups to nucleophilic attacks, indicative of their pivotal
role in the scavenging mechanism. Furthermore, investigations into
the interactions between AT and AP with the free radical HOO• revealed predominantly the reaction via the hydrogen atom transfer
mechanism. Both experimental observations and theoretical deductions
collectively affirmed AT’s superior free radical scavenging
ability over AP in the gas phase and ethanol.