Syntheses, structural elucidation, thermal properties, theoretical quantum chemical studies (DFT) and biological studies of barbituric–hydrazone complexes

Abstract Condensation of barbituric acid with hydrazine hydrate yielded barbiturichydrazone (L) which was characterized using IR, 1 H NMR and mass spectra. The Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) complexes derived from this ligand have been synthesized and structurally characterized by elemental analyses, spectroscopic methods (IR, UV–Vis and ESR) and thermal analyses (TGA, DTG and DTA) and the structures were further elucidated using quantum chemical density functional theory. Complexes of L were found to have the ML. n H 2 O stoichiometry with either tetrahedral or octahedral geometry. The ESR data showed the Cu(II) complex to be in a tetragonal geometry. Theoretical investigation of the electronic structure of metal complexes at the TD-DFT/B3LYP level of theory has been carried out and discussed. The fundamental vibrational wavenumbers were calculated and a good agreement between observed and scaled calculated wavenumbers was achieved. Thermal studies were performed to deduce the stabilities of the ligand and complexes. Thermodynamic parameters, such as the order of reactions ( n ), activation energy Δ E ∗ , enthalpy of reaction Δ H ∗ and entropy Δ S ∗ were calculated from DTA curves using Horowitz–Metzger method. The ligand L and its complexes have been screened for their antifungal and antibacterial activities and were found to possess better biological activities compared to those of unsubstituted barbituric acid complexes.