Synthesis and Characterisation of Multi-Ferrocenyl Compounds Containing Enone Moieties

Abstract

Ferrocene based organometallic compounds have received intense attention in synthetic chemistry due to their increasing interest in biological, optical, and electrochemical properties. Among them, compounds containing heterocycles linked to ferrocene moiety have predominantly attracted importance because of their application in medicinal and materials chemistry. Recently, ferrocene incorporation into several drug compounds have improved the activity of the drug showing their potential in the field of medicinal chemistry. Ferrocene substituted tamoxifen and ferrocenyl chloroquine derivatives are among the many examples where the compound showed higher activity compared to their organic analogue. In view of their interesting properties and emerging potential, we focused our studies on the synthesis of ferrocene based chalcones and study of their biological, electrochemical and sensing properties. Chalcones itself constitute an important class of compounds with varied biological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-microbials, anti-malarial and anti inflammatory and are prime precursors to different types of heterocyclic compounds. Therefore, we chose to prepare a number of ferrocenyl chalcones and understand their electrochemical and biological properties.