Structure of Biologically Active Benzoxazoles: Crystallography and DFT Studies

Using X-ray single crystal diffraction, the crystal structures of biologically active benzoxazole derivatives were determined. DFT calculation was performed with standard 6-31G*(d), 6-31G** and 6-31+G* basis set to analyze the molecular geometry and compare with experimentally obtained X-ray crystal data of compounds. The calculated HOMO-LUMO energy gap in compound 2 (2-(2-hydroxynaphtalen-1-yl)-4-methyl-7-isopropyl-1,3-benzoxazol-5-ol) is 3.80 eV and this small gap value indicates that compound 2 is chemically more reactive compared to compounds 1 (4-methyl-2-phenyl-7-isopropyl-1,3-benzoxazol-5-ol) and 3 (2-(4-chlorophenyl)-4-methyl-7-isopropyl-1,3-benzoxazol-5-ol). The crystal structures are stabilized by both intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds in which an intermolecular O-H⋅⋅⋅N hydrogen bond generates N3 and O7 chain motif in compounds 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The calculated bond lengths and bond angles of all three compounds are remarkably close to the experimental values obtained by X-ray single crystal diffraction.