Synthesis, structure characterization, DFT calculations, and computational anticancer activity investigations of 1-phenyl ethanol derivatives

•Catalytic conversion of alkynes to secondary alcohols by FePC with NaBH4.•1-phenylethanol derivatives formed following the addition and elimination mechanism.•Examining anticancer activity by binding of the product with protein kinase b.•Determine the highest chemical stability of compound 1 by DFT calculations. 1-Phenyl ethanol derivatives are well-known classes of drug molecules that play an important role as effective substitute analogs to anticancer and antiviral agents. In this work, phenylacetylene was selected as a simple alkyne in the presence of iron (II) phthalocyanine with NaBH4 as a catalyst. This reaction has been proven that it is a significantly efficient catalyzed conversion of terminal and internal alkynes to 1-phenyl ethanol derivatives as secondary alcohols followed by the addition and elimination mechanism. However, such drug design by compiling the redox reaction and its sequence essentially requires exact stoichiometry of iron phthalocyanine to alkynes. The products were characterized using flash column chromatography with an eluent ratio of PE: EA (5: 1 / V: V), gas chromatography, 1H, and 13C NMR spectroscopy. The potential of the synthesized compounds to bind to protein kinase B was investigated through molecular docking to dig out their probable anticancer activity. Compound 7 (1-(4-bromophenyl) ethan-1-ol) exhibited the highest binding potential. However, the binding potential of all the compounds was less than the standard parent compound. In addition, the density functional theory (DFT) studies of the compounds were also applied which revealed that compound 1 might have the highest chemical stability.