The synthesis and characterization of 1-(Allyl)-3-(2-methylbenzyl)benzimidazolium chloride: FT-IR, NMR, and DFT computational investigation.

Abstract A new N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) salt was synthesized by the reaction of 1-allyl benzimidazole with 2-methyl benzyl chloride. The structure of N-heterocyclic carbene salt was determined by elemental analysis, FT-IR, 1 H NMR and 13 C NMR spectroscopy and supported by the computational spectral analyses. For this purpose, the stable conformational structures obtained by Potential Energy Surface (PES) scan at B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) level of the theory have been used to elucidate the spectroscopic studies of the NHC salt as well as to search the electronic properties being important to predict the chemical reactivity behavior and nonlinearity properties of the NHC salt. FMO amplitudes and MEP diagrams have been used to show the chemically active sites of each stable conformer. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • Synthesis and characterization of the NHC salt. • The structure was investigated by NM and FT-IR spectroscopy. • Stable conformers of NHC salt were revealed by computational modeling. • Spectral data were compared with computational ones. • NBO, NLO, FMO and MEP diagrams were investigated by computational tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]