Theoretical Investigations of Hydrogen Bonding Interactions of (E)-1-(1H-Benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-3-Phenylprop-2-en-1-one Momoners and Dimers: NBO, QTAIM and NCI Study

Hydrogen bonding is an essential interaction in nature and plays a crucial role in many formations of materials and biological processes, requiring a deeper understanding of its formation. Benzimidazole is an important structural unit found in a large number of natural and pharmacologically active molecules. In the present work, the electronic structures and properties and relatives stabilities of a series of (E)-1-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-2-yl)-3-phenylprop-2-en-1-one monomers and dimers have been studied by density functional theory using B3LYP 6-31+G (d, p) calculation level. the strengths of the noncovalent interactions have been analyzed in terms of the QTAIM analysis, NCI analysis and natural bond orbital approaches. It was found that the dimers are formed by double N-H⋯O hydrogen bond. QTAIM analysis proved the presence of intramolecular hydrogen bond in monomers and coexistence of intramolecular and intermolecular hydrogen bond in dimers. Frequency analysis show that intermolecular N-H⋯O interactions are proper hydrogen bond while intramolecular C-H⋯N, C-H⋯O, C-H⋯H-C interactions are improper hydrogen bond. NBO and NCI analyses confirm the existence of hydrogen bonds in the studied monomers and dimers. The presence of weakly electron acceptor group on benzene ring favor the total interaction energy of dimerization.