Synthesis, spectroscopic, DFT, HSA binding and docking studies of new 1,5-bis(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)quinolin-3-yl)pentane-1,5-dione

1,5-Bis(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(2-(4-methylpiperazin-1-yl)quinolin-3-yl)pentane-1,5-dione was synthesised and characterised using single-crystal X-ray Crystallography, FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR and UV-Visible spectroscopy. DFT calculations were performed at the B3LYP/6-311++G (d.p) level of theory in the gas phase. Frontier Molecular Orbitals (FMO) yielded HOMO-LUMO energy as: E_HOMO = -6.015 eV, E_LUMO = -2.525 eV and energy gap, ΔE_gap = 3.490 eV. Fukui Function Analysis (FFA) indicated the reactive sites for electrophilic, and nucleophilic attack. The molecule's electrophilic addition site is 4-N in the piperazine group with a value of 0.020. The site for nucleophilic attack is both 13-C and 15-C in the quinoline group with values of 0.02 and 0.031 respectively. The biological activity was elucidated by molecular docking studies that gave a ΔG value for HSA binding of -26.44 kJ mol⁻¹ which is approximately similar to the experimental value obtained from emission spectral data of -32.15 kJ mol⁻¹.