Quantum chemical computations, vibrational spectroscopic analysis and antimicrobial studies of 2,3-Pyrazinedicarboxylic acid

•Red shift of OH stretching frequencies in FT IR is a clear evidence for the occurrence of OH⋯O interaction.•Strong intermolecular hydrogen bond formation in PDCA enhances antimicrobial activity.•Antimicrobial activity results of the viability assay have proved PDCA to hold excellent antimicrobial nature.•Molecular docking study confirms the interaction between PDCA and 1GSK.

Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations at B3PW91 level with 6-311G (d) basis sets were carried out for 2,3-Pyrazinedicarboxylic acid (PDCA) to analyze in detail the equilibrium geometries and vibrational spectra. Calculations reveal that the optimized geometry closely resembles the experimental XRD data. Vibrational spectra were analyzed on the basis of potential energy distribution (PED) of each vibrational mode, which provides quantitative as well as qualitative interpretation of IR and Raman spectra. Information about size, shape, charge density distribution and site of chemical reactivity of the molecule were obtained by mapping electron density isosurface with the electrostatic potential surface (ESP). Based on optimized ground state geometries, NBO analysis was performed to study donor–acceptor (bond–antibond) interactions. TD–DFT analysis was also performed to calculate energies, oscillator strength of electronic singlet–singlet transitions and the absorption wavelengths. The 13C and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts of the molecule in the ground state were calculated by gauge independent atomic orbital (GIAO) method and compared with the experimental values. PDCA was screened for its antimicrobial activity and found to exhibit antifungal and antibacterial effects. Molecular docking was also performed for the different receptors.

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