Synthesis and antiproliferative study of phosphorescent multimetallic Re(I)/Au(I) complexes containing fused imidazo[4,5‐f]‐1,10‐phenanthroline core

Five heterobimetallic ReI/AuI and a tri-metallic ReI/AuI/ReI species following the formulas fac-[ReCl (CO)3(N^N^CAuR)]0/+ [(fac-[ReCl (CO)3(N^N^C)])2Au]+, where R is either iodide (1), phenylacetylene (2), dodecanethiol (3), 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-1-thio-β-D-glucopyranose (4), JohnPhos (5) N^N^C fused imidazo[4,5-f]-1,10-phenanthroline heterotopic ligand, were synthesised fully characterised by variety of spectroscopic analytical techniques. The resultant complexes are luminescent in orange region, revealing classical 3MLCT ((Re (dπ)→(N^N^C)(π*)) emission aerated DMSO solution. red shifted observed on going from 3 to 4 suggests that electronic properties gold ancillary ligand implicated emissive properties. Antiproliferative activity tumour cell lines, lung (A549) cervix (HeLa) cells, revealed only complex containing as possesses certain cytotoxicity both lines.