Synthesis, characterization, and computational analysis of novel imidazole-based derivative with tailored electronic properties

Imidazole-based ligand was developed via the Debus–Radziszewski synthetic method by direct reaction of 2,6-diformyl-4-methyl-phenol and 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione and characterized by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and LCMS. The Density Functional Theory (DFT) studies for the synthesized compound have been carried out at DFT/B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of theory to predict the optimized molecular geometry, HOMO-LUMO energy, vibrational frequencies, MEP mapping and global reactivity descriptors. The observed results correlated with experimental results. A synthesized compound bearing an imidazole group was created as an ON-OFF fluorescent chemosensor for Fe³⁺ and V⁵⁺ ions. The probe’s UV–visible absorption and fluorescence spectral behavior towards various cations were investigated in acetonitrile/water (9:1) solution. The absorbance intensity of the probe molecule was considerably enhanced whereas the fluorescence emission intensity was quenched in the presence of these two metal cations, while the presence of other metal ions had no notable interference.