Design and Synthesis of Novel Fluorescent 2-(aryloxy)-3-(4,5-diaryl)-1 H -imidazol-2-yl)quinolines: Solvatochromic, DFT, TD-DFT Studies, COX-1 and COX-2 Inhibition and Antioxidant Properties

The present work focuses on the synthesis of novel heterocycles 2-(aryloxy)-3-(4,5-diaryl-1 H -imidazol-2-yl)quinolines ( 6k - v ) by an effective condensation reaction. These molecules exhibited fluorescent properties and hence for the proper understanding of their optical behavior and quantum yields, solvatochromic studies have been carried out. Further, frontier molecular orbitals, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), and geometrical structure optimization have been investigated using the B 3 LYP/6-311G ++ (d, p) method. The energy gap between the HOMO, LUMO of the optical and energy band gap is determined by DFT and UV–visible spectra for TD-DFT studies are done. The screening of these compounds for in vitro COX-1 and COX-2 inhibition and DPPH free radical scavenging ability assays produced promising results. The binding interactions of these molecules against the COX-2 enzyme (PDB: 5IKR) were validated by docking studies. Graphical Abstract