Synthesis, characterization, vibrational analysis and computational studies of a new Schiff base from pentafluoro benzaldehyde and sulfanilamide

• New series of (E)−4-(((perfluorophenyl)methylene)amino)benzenesulfonamide were synthesized. • The chemical reactivity was analyzed by HOMO-LUMO. • The spectroscopic features of the compound were investigated by DFT. • Chemical reactivity sites, dual descriptor, ELF, LOL, ALIE and RDG were estimated. This work presents the characterization of (E)-4-(((perfluorophenyl)methylene)amino)benzenesulfonamide (PFNI) by spectral techniques and quantum chemical calculations. The structure was investigated by FT-IR, UV–Vis and NMR techniques. The geometrical parameters and energies have been obtained from Density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP (cc-pVDZ) basis set calculation. The geometry of the molecule was fully optimized, vibrational spectra were calculated and fundamental vibrations were assigned on the basis of potential energy distribution (PED) of the vibrational modes, calculated with VEDA program. 1 H and 13 C NMR chemical shifts of the molecule were calculated using Gauge-independent atomic orbital method (GIAO). The electronic properties such as excitation energies, wavelength performed by Time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) results complements with the experimental findings. NBO analysis has been performed for analyzing charge delocalization throughout the molecule. The calculation results were applied to simulate spectra of the title compound, which show excellent agreement with observed spectra. To provide information about the interactions between staphylococcus aureus (4EMW) protein and the novel compound theoretically, docking studies were carried out using autodock-4.