Spectral analysis, structural elucidation, and evaluation of both nonlinear optical properties and chemical reactivity of a newly synthesized ethyl-3,5-dimethyl-4-[(toluenesulfonyl)-hydrazonomethyl]-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylate through experimental studies an

• FT-IR spectrum of synthesized compound was recorded and compared with the theoretical results.
• By using TD-DFT/6-31G method, electronic transitions for title compound are predicted.
• The 1H NMR spectrum has also been studied.
• The electronic descriptors have been used to explain chemical reactivity.

As part of study of hydrazide–hydrazones, we have synthesized ethyl-3,5-dimethyl-4-[(toluenesulfonyl)-hydrazonomethyl]-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylate (EDTHMPC) and characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, UV–Vis, 1H, 13C NMR and Mass spectroscopy. The structure, spectral and thermodynamic parameters of EDTHMPC were quantum chemically calculated performing density functional level theory (DFT) with B3LYP functional and 6-31G (d,p) basis set. Electrophilic charge transfer (ECT) values of interacting molecules indicate that charge flows from p-toluene sulphonyl-hydrazide to ethyl-3,5-dimethyl-4-formyl-1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylate confirming the formation of product by nucleophilic attack. The calculated and experimental wavenumbers analysis confirms the formation of dimer. The calculated changes in thermodynamic quantities during dimer formation in gaseous phase have the negative values for ΔH, ΔG (kcal/mol) and ΔS (cal/mol-K) indicating that the dimer formation is exothermic and will proceed only at low temperature. The strength and nature of hydrogen bonding and weak interactions in dimer have been analyzed by ‘Quantum theory of atoms in molecules’ (QTAIM) and found to be five types of interactions in which three types are (C⋯N, CH⋯O and CH⋯HC) intramolecular and two types are (CO⋯HN and CH⋯OC) intermolecular. The calculated binding energy of dimer using DFT and QTAIM theory are 14.32 and 15.41 kcal/mol, respectively. The β0 value for monomer is calculated as 11.54 x 10–30 esu indicating microscopic nonlinear optical (NLO) behavior with non–zero values.