Synthesis, molecular structure, DFT studies and antimicrobial activities of some novel 3-(1-(3,4-dimethoxyphenethyl)-4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-indole derivatives and its molecular docking studies

•Synthesis of novel imidazoles by SO42−/Y2O3 catalyst.•Vibrational wave numbers are assigned using TED analysis.•Title compound used as a good candidate for NLO material.•Molecular docking studies are reported.

A new series of 3-(1-(3,4-dimethoxyphenethyl)-4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)-1H-indole derivatives (5a-5j) are conveniently synthesized and characterized by IR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectral techniques. The compound 5f was also confirmed by single crystal XRD analysis and optimized bond parameters were calculated by density functional theory (DFT) at B3LYP/6–31G (d, p) level. The optimized geometrical parameters obtained by DFT calculation are in good agreement with single crystal XRD data. The experimentally observed FT-IR and FT-Raman bands were assigned to different normal modes of the molecule. The stability and charge delocalization of the molecule were also studied by Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) analysis. The overlapping of atomic orbital along with their predicted energy is explained on the basis of HOMO–LUMO energy gap calculations. Molecular Electrostatic Potential map (MEP) was studied for predicting the reactive sites. The reported molecule used as a potential NLO material since it has high μβ0 value. The antibacterial activities of these derivatives were studied using molecular docking studies and it is compared with their experimental results.

Graphical abstractXRD, Optimized structure, Docking, FT-IR and Antibacterial activity study.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide