Synthesis, structural investigations and antimicrobial studies of hydrazone based ternary complexes with Cr(III), Fe(III) and La(III) ions

A novel series of three trivalent mononuclear ternary complexes of the type, [ML1L2] [M = Cr(III), Fe(III) and La(III), HL1 = 2-((2-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)hydrazone)methyl)phenol, HL2 = 2-aminophenol] was investigated by various physio-chemical studies. To obtain additional information inside the structure, density functional theory calculation was also carried out. The synthesized complexes showed remarkable antimicrobial activity when tested against A. niger, A. flavus, R. stolonifer, C. albicans, E. coli and Klebsiella sp. microbes. Furthermore, the molecular docking analysis was also carried out to analyze the interactions in protein–ligand complexes. Moreover, the quantitative structure–activity relationship was also investigated to study the biological activity of the ligand.