Twelve Ruthenium-based anti-cancer complexes were synthesized and studied spectroscopically. The data were analyzed to determine the metal-ligand bond covalencies in the context of their relative effectiveness in cancer cells. Methods used to study the complexes were X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, UN=Vis Spectroscopy, IR Spectroscopy, NMR Spectroscopy, and Magnetic Susceptibility. The analysis of our work has primarily focused on the trans-RuCl²(dmso)⁴ due to similarity of the structures. It was found that the Ru-Cl bond has a higher covalency in the trans-RuCl²(dmso)⁴ than in the cis-RuCl²(dmso)^4. The other ten complexes are currently being analyzed.

Co-author/researcher: Marcella Orwick