Synthesis of t-butyl 2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)hydrazine carboxylate: Experimental and theoretical investigations of its properties

Abstract A convenient and facile synthesis of t -butyl-2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)hydrazine carboxylate ( 1 ) was accomplished by refluxing t- butyl carbazate with an appropriate aldehyde in ethanol. The resulting compound was characterized using spectral data analysis augmented by X-ray. Single crystal analysis depicted that compound 1 crystallizes in a monoclinic crystal system with P 21/c space group having trans -geometry at the C N bond. The structural and electronic properties of the title compound have been calculated using DFT/B3LYP/6-311G (d,p) level of theory. Theoretically obtained parameters were well compared to the experimentally obtained results which depicted excellent agreement. Molecular electrostatic potential surface, frontier orbital analysis and vibrational analysis were also carried out. HOMO-LUMO energy gap was calculated which allowed the calculation of relative reactivity descriptors like chemical hardness, chemical inertness, chemical potential, nucleophilicity and electrophilicity index of the synthesized product. Pass prediction was carried out which revealed that compound 1 can be highly active against Mcl-1 enzyme, with Pa of 0.544. Based on Pass, molecular docking of compound 1 was carried out against Mcl-1 protein. Compound 1 displayed a binding free energy of −5.22 kcal/mol and inhibition constant of 149.06 μM and 1 depicted only alkyl hydrophobic and mixed pi/alkyl hydrophobic interactions with Mcl-1 enzyme. In short, this study reveals the synthesis of a new schiff base, and unravels the structural, electronic and biological properties of the title compound, paving way for further research in the field of drug development.