(E)-1-(Benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)-3-([2,2'-bi-thio-phen]-5-yl)prop-2-en-1-one: crystal structure, UV-Vis analysis and theoretical studies of a new π-conjugated chalcone

In the title compound, C18H12O3S2, synthesized by the Claisen-Schmidt condensation method, the essentially planar chalcone unit adopts an s-cis configuration with respect to the carbonyl group within the ethyl-enic bridge. In the crystal, weak C-H⋯π inter-actions connect the mol-ecules into zigzag chains along the b-axis direction. The mol-ecular structure was optimized geometrically using Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP/6-311 G++(d,p) basis set level and compared with the experimental values. Mol-ecular orbital calculations providing electron-density plots of HOMO and LUMO mol-ecular orbitals and mol-ecular electrostatic potentials (MEP) were also computed both with the DFT/B3LYP/6-311 G++(d,p) basis set. The experimental energy gap is 3.18 eV, whereas the theoretical HOMO-LUMO energy gap value is 2.73 eV. Hirshfeld surface analysis was used to further investigate the weak inter-actions present.