Utilization of Guanidine-Based Ancillary Ligands in Arene-Ruthenium Complexes for Selective Cytotoxicity.

A family of three water-soluble half-sandwich arene-ruthenium complexes, depicted as - , having the general formula [Ru(-cymene)(L)Cl]Cl has been synthesized, where L represents (1-benzo[]imidazol-2-yl)guanidine ( ) or (benzo[]oxazol-2-yl)guanidine ( ) or (benzo[]thiazol-2-yl)guanidine ( ). The crystal structure of complex has been determined. The complexes show several absorption bands in the visible and ultraviolet regions, and they also show prominent emission in the visible region while excited near 400 nm.