Spectroscopic investigation (FT-IR and FT-Raman), vibrational assignments, HOMO–LUMO, NBO, MEP analysis and molecular docking study of 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazole 3-oxide

•IR, Raman spectra and NBO analysis were reported.•The wavenumbers are calculated theoretically using Gaussian09 software.•The wavenumbers are assigned using PED analysis.•Molecular docking is reported.

In this work, the vibrational spectral analysis was carried out using FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy of 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4,5-dimethyl-1H-imidazole 3-oxide. The computations were performed at DFT levels of theory to get the optimized geometry and vibrational frequencies of the normal modes of the title compound using Gaussian09 software. The complete vibrational assignments of frequencies were made on the basis of potential energy distribution. The calculated HOMO and LUMO energies show the chemical activity of the molecule. The stability of the molecule arising from hyper-conjugative interaction and charge delocalization has been analyzed using NBO analysis. The hyperpolarizability values are reported and the first hyperpolarizability of the title compound is 19.61 times that of standard NLO material urea. From the MEP plot, the negative charge covers the nitro group and the positive region is over the hydroxyl group and N–H part of the imidazole ring. The calculated 1H NMR results are in good agreement with experimental data. Molecular docking study is also reported.

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