A new Schiff base, (E)-4-((4-chlorophenylimino) methyl)-2-methoxyphenol: Crystal structure, thermal behavior, solid-state fluorescence, DFT calculations and FT NMR spectral analysis

• Single step synthesis of a new Schiff base.
• Single crystal X-ray structure was in good agreement with DFT calculations.
• Physicochemical characterization from UV–Vis, FT-IR, FT-Raman and FT-NMR.
• Thermal analyses were performed using TG–DTA and DSC.
• 4CMP serves as a promising material for optoelectronic applications.

A new Schiff base, (E)-4-((4-chlorophenylimino) methyl)-2-methoxyphenol (4CMP), was synthesized and grown as single crystal by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The crystal structure of the compound, elucidated from single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis, was in good agreement with the calculated structure using Density functional theory (DFT) with B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) basis set of Gaussian 03 program. The physicochemical characterization of the title compound was further performed by modern spectroscopic techniques like FT-IR, FT-Raman, FT-NMR (both 1D and 2D), UV–Vis–NIR, and fluorescence analysis. UV–Vis–NIR spectrum showed the transparent nature of 4CMP crystal in the region 500–1200 nm. Solid state fluorescence of the crystal indicate that the title compound can serve as a photoactive material. Thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the grown crystal is thermally stable up to a temperature of 225 °C. From DSC, the phase transition of the compound was found to be at 131 °C. The dependence of both dielectric constant and dielectric loss with frequency was measured. Microscopic nonlinear optical properties like dipole moment (μ) and first order hyperpolarizability (β) were also measured using DFT.