Self-assembled nanostructures of specially designed Schiff-bases and their zinc complexes: Preparation, characterization and photoluminescence property

Four specially designed Schiff bases 2-formyl-4-R-6-(3N-4-hydroxybenzoicacid)-iminomethyl-phenolato (where R = methyl/tert-butyl/chloro for L1, L2, L3 respectively) and 2-(3N-4-hydroxybenzoicacid)-iminomethyl-phenolato (L4) having ability to form hydrogen bonding and their zinc complexes (1–4) have been synthesized and characterized. These complexes gave various types of nano-sized materials via self-assembly in solid state. FE-SEM was employed to investigate their morphology. Using a variety of analytical techniques such as elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ESI-MS and 1H NMR spectroscopy, a consistent picture of structures of these complexes are obtained. All the Schiff-bases and their zinc complexes exhibit photoluminescence property. Density functional theory calculation has been performed to rationalize the origin of the spectral bands of the ligands as well as the complexes.