Synthesis, spectral and antibacterial activity of Co(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) complexes with 2‐hydroxy‐benzoic acid(3,4‐dihydro‐2H‐naphthalen‐1‐ylidene)‐hydrazide

A bioactive Schiff base HL i.e. 2‐hydroxy‐benzoic acid(3,4‐dihydro‐2 H ‐naphthalen‐1‐ylidene)‐hydrazide was synthesized by reacting equimolar amount of salicylic acid hydrazide and 1‐tetralone. Co(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) complexes of ligand HL was synthesized in 1:1 and 1:2 molar ratio of metal to ligand. The structure of the synthesized ligand and metal complexes was established by elemental analysis, molar conductance, magnetic susceptibility measurements, electronic, IR and EPR spectral techniques. For determining the thermal stability the TGA has been done. In DFT studies the geometries of Schiff bases and metal complexes were fully optimized with respect to the energy using the 6–31 + g(d,p) basis set. Spectral data reveal that ligand behave uninegative tridentate in ML complexes and uninegative bidentate in ML 2 complexes. On the basis of characterization octahedral geometry has been assigned for Co(II) and Ni(II) complexes, while tetrahedral for Zn(II) complexes. Antibacterial activity of the synthesized compounds were evaluated against Staphylococcus aureus , Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli , Xanthomonas campestris and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the results revealed that metal complexes show enhanced activity in comparison to free ligand.