Newer mixed ligand Schiff base complexes from aquo-N-(2′-hydroxy acetophenone) glycinatocopper(II) as synthon: DFT, antimicrobial activity and molecular docking study

•Newer mixed ligand Schiff base complexes from aquo-N-(2′-hydroxy acetophenone) glycinatocopper(II) as synthon.•Versatility of the aquated Cu(II) complex as synthon has been demonstrated.•A distorted square planar geometry has been conjectured for the complexes from DFT calculation.•The complexes exhibited potent antibacterial activity correlated with docking scores.

Synthesis of a series of newer mixed ligand copper(II) complexes of aminoacid Schiff base of the type [CuL(X)] (L = N-(2′-hydroxy acetophenone) glycinate, X = imidazole (im) 2, benzimidazole (benz) 3, pyridine (py) 4, hydrazine (hz) 5,8-hydroxyquinoline (8-hq) 6, pyrrolidine (pyrr) 7, piperidine (pip) 8, and nicotinamide (nic) 9) have been accomplished from the interaction of an aquated Schiff base complex, [CuL(H2O)]·H2O, 1 with some selected neutral nitrogen-donor ligands. The copper(II) Schiff base complex, [CuL(H2O)]·H2O, L = N-(2′-hydroxy acetophenone) glycinate was synthesized from the reaction of glycine and 2′ hydroxy acetophenone and copper(II) acetate. The compounds were characterised by elemental analysis, spectral, magnetic and thermal studies. The density functional theory calculations were performed using LANL2DZ and 6-311 G(d, p) basis sets with B3LYP correlation functional to ascertain the stable electronic structure, HOMO–LUMO energy gap, chemical hardness and dipole moment of the mixed ligand complexes. A distorted square planar geometry has been conjectured for the complexes. Antibacterial activities of the ligand and its metal complexes have been tested against selected gram-positive and gram-negative strains and correlated with computational docking scores.