Spectroscopic, crystal structure and DFT-assisted studies of some nickel(II) chelates of a heterocyclic-based NNO donor aroylhydrazone: in vitro DNA binding and docking studies.

Five new nickel(II) complexes have been synthesised with an NNO donor tridentate aroylhydrazone (HFPB) employing the chloride, nitrate, acetate and perchlorate salts, and all the complexes are physiochemically characterized. Elemental analyses suggested stoichiometries as Ni(FPB)(NO 3 )]·2H 2 O (1), [Ni(HFPB)(FPB)]Cl (2), [Ni(FPB)(OAc)(DMF)] (3), [Ni(FPB)(ClO 4 )]·DMF (4), [Ni(FPB) 2 ] (5). Aroylhydrazone is found coordinating in deprotonated iminolate form in four of the complexes (1, 3, 4, 5) however in one case (complex 2), two aroylhydrazone moieties are binding to the metal centre in the neutral and anionic forms. The structure of the bisligated complex 5, found using single crystal X ray diffraction studies confirmed that the metal has a distorted octahedral N 4 O 2 coordination environment, with each of the two deprotonated ligands coordinating through the pyridine nitrogen, imino-hydrazone nitrogen and the enolate oxygen of the hydrazone moiety. To compare and study, the electronic interactions and stabilities of the metal complexes, various quantum chemical parameters were calculated. Moreover, Hirshfeld surface analysis was carried out for complex 5 to determine the intermolecular interactions. The biophysical attributes of the ligand and complex 5 have been investigated with CT-DNA and experimental outcomes show that the Ni(II) complex exhibited higher binding propensity towards DNA as compared to ligand. Furthermore, to specifically understand the type of interactions of the metal complexes with DNA, molecular docking studies were effectuated. In addition, the electronic and related reactivity behaviors of the ligand and five Ni(II) complexes were studied using B3LYP/6-31 +  + G**/LANL2DZ level. As expected, the obtained results from Natural Bond Orbital (NBO) computations displayed that the resonance interactions (n → π* and π → π*) play a determinant role in evaluating the chemical attributes of the reported compounds.