A series of salen-derived schiff bases were synthesized and characterized. The corresponding cobalt (II) complexes were also synthesized and their electrochemistry was studied using cyclic voltammogram, which shows that the present ligand system is well suited for long-range couplings. The metal complexes were then screened for antibacterial studies, and it was found that the metal complex can be used as antibacterial inhibitors.

Ligands with coordinating atoms are of much interest in inorganic chemistry. Particularly, imines or azomethines, which are more commonly known as schiff bases, are attracting attention as compounds for complex formation with metals. Magnetic susceptibility, electronic absorption spectra, elemental analysis, molecular weight determination, thermal analysis of many schiff bases and their complexes have been reported (Abel et al., 1971; Shehatta et al., 2001; and Abba et al., 2005). There are also several reports on their biological properties such as antibacterial and antifungal activities (William 1972; and Campos et al., 1999). Particularly, schiff bases derived from the salicylaldehydes are well-known polydendate ligands (Holm et al., 1996; and Tumer, 1999). It has been shown that schiff base complexes derived from 4-hydroxysalicylaldehyde and amines have strong anticancer activity (Narang and Singh, 1993). The salen complexes were found to be antifungal active in most of the cases (Dharmaraj et al., 2001; and Belaid et al., 2008).

Synthesis of schiff base complexes with transition metals (Kwiatkowski and Kwiatkowski, 1980; and Costes, 1987) plays a vital role in bio-inorganic chemistry due to their biomimitic properties. They mimic as metalloproteins and metalloenzymes (Cotamagana et al., 1992; and Pandey et al., 1994) in which transition metals are bound to a macrocycle, such as a heme ring. Generally, the metal complexes exhibit higher biological activity compared to the parent ligand systems. Such increased activity of the metal complexes is due to the lipophilic nature of the metal ions in complexes (Guo et al., 2008).

Chemistry Journal, Electrochemical Properties, Antibacterial Properties, Cyclic Voltammogram, Metalloenzymes, Medicinal Properties, Electronic Spectra, Electron Transfer Process, Antibacterial Inhibitors, Microbial Cells, Hydrogen Bonds.