A series of novel ferrocene‐based dipeptide receptors for electrochemistry and biological activity

Synthesis of ferrocene‐based dipeptide receptors FcL1 , FcL2 , FcL3 , FcL4 , FcL5 was carried out by the acylation reaction of ferrocenecarboxylic acid with dipeptide esters. Compounds were characterized by IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and elemental analysis. Single‐crystal X‐ray analysis of FcL3 showed it has two independent chiral molecules and the two chiral atoms (C12 and C35) are in R configuration. Their cyclic voltammetric behaviors showed a pair of well‐defined and stable redox waves in the potential range 0.00–1.00 V. The configuration of the metals influenced the receptor's characteristics greatly, and at the same time the FcL compounds could selectively sense group IIB metal ions Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺ and Hg²⁺. The biological activities of FcL1 , FcL2 , FcL3 , FcL4 , FcL5 were studied against the tested bacteria; among them, FcL4 showed significant activity against all five bacterial strains tested. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.