Palladium (0) catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reactions of 2,4-dibromothiophene: selectivity,characterization and biological applications

A series of novel 2-aryl¹-4-bromothiophenes (2a–f), biarylthiophenes with non-identical aryl groups (3a–e) and biarylthiophenes with identical aryl groups (4a–f) were synthesized in moderate to excellent yields by using different arylboronic acids in a Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reaction. The experimental results showed that the use of K₂CO₃ as base resulted in moderate yields compared with that of good yields obtained upon using K₃PO₄. The highest yield obtained using K₃PO₄ was 82% for 2, 4-bis (4-chlorophenyl) thiophene (4d). The synthesized compounds in the present study were examined for their biofilm inhibition and hemolysis assay. Among all compounds 2, 4-bis (4-methoxyphenyl) thiophene (4b) was found to strongly inhibit the formation of bacterial biofilm against E. coli. The compound 4b exhibited higher inhibition (80.92%) compared with the standard Rifampicin with 97.43% inhibition. The compound 2, 4-bis (4-chlorophenyl) thiophene (4d) displayed strong anti-biofilm activity with its ability to prevent the formation of Pasteurell amultocida biofilm at the percent inhibition of 74.53%. In addition, 2f showed the highest percentage hemolysis 16.0% compared with that of the standard Triton-X-100. 3