Concentration effects on optical properties, DFT, crystal characterization and α-glucosidase activity studies: Novel Zn(II) complex

[Display omitted] •Novel Zn(II) complex was synthesized and its crystal structure was determined.•The experimental optical properties at different concentrations were investigated.•The IC50 value of Zn(II) complex against α-glucosidase was also determined.•DFT/M06-L and ωB97XD levels were used for spectral and optical properties.•The experimental and theoretical results were comparatively presented. A novel Zn(II) complex of 6-ClpicH and picH was synthesized and its structure was determined by XRD technique. The detailed experimental optical susceptibility and band gap, refractive index, linear polarizability, optical and electrical conductivity parameters in various concentrations were investigated by means of the UV–Vis spectroscopic data. The optical band gap, refractive index (n), linear optical susceptibility (χ(1)), third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility (χ(3)), second- and third-order nonlinear optical (β and γ) parameters were examined by using DFT/M06-L and ωB97XD/6–311++G(d,p) levels. The IC50 value of Zn(II) complex against α-glucosidase was also obtained at 0.44 mM. The experimental band gap of the Zn(II) complex at 13, 33, 44 and 94 µM concentrations in ethanol were found to be 4.38, 4.37, 4.35 and 4.28 eV, respectively. The third-order NLO susceptibility χ(3) parameter at 94 µM concentration corresponding to the photon energies of 4.6 and 5.7 eV in the UV–Vis region were observed at 206.6 × 10-13 and 294.3 × 10-13 esu, respectively. Besides, the theoretical χ(3) values were obtained at 50.58 × 10−13 and 20.37 × 10−13 esu by using M06-L level. These results indicate that Zn(II) complex could be an effective third-order NLO candidate material. In brief, the detailed theoretical and experimental structural, spectral and optical properties of the Zn(II) complex were presented comparatively.