Spectroscopic characterization (IR, UV-Vis), and HOMO-LUMO, MEP, NLO, NBO Analysis and the Antifungal Activity for 4-Bromo-N-(2-nitrophenyl) benzamide; Using DFT Modeling and In silico Molecular Docking

Abstract

In this study, the density functional theory was used to explore the spectral and electronic properties of the title molecule, as well as a molecular docking technique to evaluate its antifungal activity. The fundamental vibrations were assigned based on the calculated vibrational spectra. The maximum absorption peak in the UV–Visible spectra was detected at 238.165 nm and caused by electronic transitions from HOMO to LUMO+1. The calculated quantum chemical parameters indicated considerable chemical activity, such as a small band gap and high electrophilicity value. The title molecule has a high level of electrophile nature, as revealed by its high electrophilicity value (7.32 eV) and MEP analysis. The third-order NLO polarizability analysis demonstrated significant potential for NLO applications. NBO analysis was conducted to analyze a complete molecular description and intermolecular interactions resulting from hyper-conjugative interactions and charge delocalization of the molecule. The calculated physicochemical properties of Lipinski's rule revealed a favorable character of drug-likeness. The molecular docking study confirmed the strong inhibitory potential (-8.05 Kcal/Mol) for the title molecule against 14α-demethylase, the main target enzyme for antifungal medications. In the reported protein-ligand interaction, the presence of a halogen bond with the bromine atom indicated the halogenated character of the studied molecule. These findings point to a high level of antifungal activity.