Synthesis and characterization of some heteroleptic iridiumcomplexes and investigation of their efficiency as bioimagingagents

In this thesis, heteroleptic multifunctional iridium (III) complexes were synthesized and their effectiveness in bioimaging studies was examined. The synthesized iridium complexes contain two different ligand groups as C^N and L^X types. 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)pyridine (ppyOCH3), 2-(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)pyridine (ppyCF3) and 2-(4-perfluorocarboxyphenyl)pyridine (ppyCRf8)compounds containing -OCH3, -CF3 and -CO(CF2)7CF3 substituents on the 2-phenylpyridine ring as C^N type ligand; methacryloyltyrosine (MATyr) and methacryloyltryptophan (MATrp) compounds were synthesized as L^X type ligand. Iridium metal complexes of C^N and L^X type ligands were prepared and their structures and spectroscopic properties were characterized by FT-IR, UV-VIS, NMR and thermal analysis. The use of synthesized heteroleptic iridium complexes as both targeting and photomarker for lung cancer cells was demonstrated by interacting the amino acid groups in the structure of L^X type ligands with transferrin protein via photon-effect electron transfer (FET) over phenolic and indolic groups. Biomaterials containing [Ir(ppyCF3)2MATry]-transferrin cross-linked conjugate (K3-Tf) and nano[Ir(ppyCF3)2MATry]-transferrin particles (nanoK3-TfP) synthesized from the [Ir(ppyCF3)2MATry] (K3) complex. It was found to be the best in terms of targeting and imaging cancerous cells.