Synthesis of N-(un)substituted-N-(2-methoxyphenyl/phenyl)-4-chlorobenzenesulfonamides as potent antibacterial derivatives

Sulfonamides belong to a biologically dynamic class of compounds with considerable importance for organic synthetic chemists. In the presented work, a benign series of chlorinated sulfonamides, 3a-b, was synthesized by coupling alkoxy (un) substituted anilines, 2a-b, with 4-chlorobenzenesulfonyl chloride (1) under basic pH control in an aqueous medium. The sulfonamides, 3a-b, were geared up with alkyl/aralkyl halides, 4-6, in a basic aprotic solvent to yield the target molecules, 7a-b, 8a-b and 9a-b. The structures of all the derivatives were furnished by ¹H NMR, IR and EI-MS spectral analysis. All the synthesized compounds were screened for α-chemotrypsin and antibacterial activities.