Synthesis of nonlinear optical polyimides containing azodiamine derivative chromophores and their electrooptic and thermal properties

Some thermally stable second‐order nonlinear optical (NLO) polyimides were synthesized. The polyimides were prepared by the ring‐opening polyaddition of 4,4′‐(hexafluoroisopropylidene) diphthalic anhydride and pyromellitic dianhydride with two aromatic azodiamine derivatives as the NLO chromophores. These chromophores, based on a nitro group connected with azobenzene as the acceptor end of a donor–π‐bridge–acceptor chromophore and a diamine group as the donor end, had specific chemical stability. On the basis of ZERNER'S INDO methods, according to the sum‐over‐states formula, a program for the calculation of nonlinear second‐order optical susceptibilities was devised. The resulting polyimides had high number‐average and weight‐average molecular weights of up to 26,000 and 53,500, respectively, and a large glass‐transition temperature of 248 °C. With an in situ poling and temperature ramping technique, the optimal temperatures (T_opt's) for corona poling were obtained for the largest second‐order NLO response. The electrooptic coefficient (γ₃₃) of a polyimide at a wavelength of 830 nm was up to 21 pm/V after corona poling under its T_opt, and the value remained at elevated temperatures (>90.6% was retained at 240 °C for >120 h). The thermal stability of the NLO polyimides was studied with UV spectrometry after poling of the films. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 2478–2486, 2002     

Aromatic/proaromatic donors in 2-dicyanomethylenethiazole merocyanines: from neutral to strongly zwitterionic nonlinear optical chromophores

Push–pull compounds, in which a proaromatic electron donor is conjugated to a 2‐dicyanomethylenethiazole acceptor, have been prepared, and their properties compared to those of model compounds featuring an aromatic donor. A combined experimental (X‐ray diffraction, ¹H NMR, IR, Raman, UV/Vis, nonlinear optical (NLO) measurements) and theoretical study reveals that structural and solvent effects determine the ground‐state polarisation of these merocyanines: whereas 4H‐pyran‐4‐ylidene‐ and 4‐pyridylidene‐containing compounds are zwitterionic and 1,3‐dithiol‐2‐ylidene derivatives are close to the cyanine limit, anilino‐derived merocyanines are essentially neutral. This very large range of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) gives rise to efficient second‐order NLO chromophores with μβ values ranging from strongly negative to strongly positive. In particular, pyranylidene derivatives are unusual in that they show an increase in the degree of ICT on lengthening the π‐spacer, a feature that lies behind the very large negative μβ values they display. The linking of the formally quinoidal 2‐dicyanomethylenethiazole moiety to proaromatic donors seems a promising approach towards the optimisation of zwitterionic NLO chromophores.     

Theoretical study on second‐order nonlinear optical properties of spin crossover Fe(III) phenolate‐pyridyl Schiff base complexes

The density functional and ab initio theory were used to investigate the second‐order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of Schiff base ligands, open‐shell Fe(III), and closed‐shell Ni(II) complexes. The effect of the metal center in complexes is thus manifold: it templates the formation of acentric structures, imparts high thermal stability to the chelate ring, and display higher second‐order NLO response than their ligands. The second‐order NLO response of metal complexes are intensively sensitive to the exchange donor/acceptor because the differences of the extent of charge separation and the intraligand charge transfer processes. Thus, substituted metal complexes could realize “switches on” the second‐order NLO response by exchange donor/acceptor. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010     

含1,8-二甲氧基-9,10-二氢蒽和巴比妥酸的发色团化合物的合成和NLO性质

在哌啶和醋酸催化下,1,8-二甲氧基-4,5-二甲酰基-9,10-二氢蒽和异佛尔酮巴比妥酸衍生物经Knoevenagel缩合合成了具有NLO性质的发色团化合物。在这些发色团中,环锁定的三烯和9,10-二氢蒽用作共轭桥,巴比妥酸和甲氧其分别作为吸电子和给电子基, 组成非共轭的两个D-π-A单位。溶剂变色法和紫外光谱研究证实它们比相应的参考物有较大的NLO活性并能保持与参考化合物相同的透光性。     

Theoretical Study on Second‐order Nonlinear Optical Properties of Substituted Thiazole Derivatives

On the basis of ZINDO program, we have designed a program to calculate the nonlinear second‐order polarizability β_yk and β_μ according to the SOS expression. The second‐order nonlinear optical properties of 4‐nitro‐4′‐dimethylamino‐stilbene and a series of its thiazole derivatives were studied. The calculated results were that: When replacing a benzene ring in 4‐nitro‐4′‐dimethylamino‐stilbene by a thiazole ring, the influence on β values depends on the position of thiazole ring. When the thiazole ring connects with nitro group (acceptor), the β values increase significantly compared with corresponding stilbene derivatives. The β values of 2‐(p‐donor‐β‐styryl)‐5‐nitro‐thiazole derivatives (2–7) are larger than those of 2‐(p‐nitro‐β‐styryl)‐5‐donor‐thiazole derivatives (8–13) and 2‐(p‐donor‐phenyl)‐azo‐5‐nitro‐thiazole derivatives (14–19). The 2‐(p‐donor‐β‐styryl)‐5‐nitro‐thiazole derivatives (2–7) are good candidates as chromophores duo to their high nonlinearities and potential good thermal stability.     

Triaryl‐1,3,5‐triazinane‐2,4,6‐triones (Isocyanurates) Peripherally Functionalized by Donor Groups: Synthesis and Study of Their Linear and Nonlinear Optical Properties

The linear optical (LO) and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of a series of isocyanurates functionalized by donor arms at the periphery are reported herein. These octupolar derivatives were obtained in a straightforward way from commercial isocyanate derivatives and were fully characterized. Although several of these compounds are known, those that exhibited the largest NLO activities are all new compounds. In terms of second‐order activity, several of these derivatives exhibit remarkable activity/transparency tradeoffs. In terms of third‐order activity, the longer derivatives with the stronger donor groups (X=NH₂, NMe₂, or NPh₂) were shown to possess significant two‐photon absorption cross sections. These strongly luminescent derivatives exhibit two‐photon absorption cross sections up to 410 GM. DFT computations were also conducted to unravel their electronic structures and to rationalize their NLO properties. To our knowledge, the present study is the first concerned with the nonlinear optical properties of these original cyclotrimers.     

2,2′‐Bipyridine‐Based Dendritic Structured Compounds for Second Harmonic Generation

Parallel alignment of dipolar electron‐donor–π‐bridge‐electron‐acceptor entities can strongly enhance their nonlinear optical properties. This favorable arrangement can be in principle achieved by linking these units covalently or through metal coordination. Four dipolar single‐strand chromophores decorated with a 5‐electron‐donor–5′‐electron‐acceptor‐modified 2,2′‐bipyridine functionality were synthesized. For two of these chromophores triple‐stranded dendritic structures were successfully formed. All of the compounds were characterized with respect to their linear and nonlinear optical properties. For the aldehyde derivatives an enhancement of the first hyperpolarizability of 4.5 rather than 3 was obtained when going from single to triple strands. Theoretical calculations with density functional theory suggest that interstrand transitions contribute to the optical properties of the dendritic structures.     

ZINDO-SOS Studies on Second-order Nonlinear Optical Properties of Thiophene S,S-Dioxide Chromophores

IntroductionThe organic nonlinear optical(NLO) chromo-phores used for electro- optic(EO) polymers havereceived much attention of scientists due to theirfaster response time,wider applied wave bands,lower loss,easy remoulding and other novel prop-erties.A variety of organic chromophores havebeen extensively investigated for their nonlinearoptical properties,e.g.,thiophene containingπ-systems[1— 10 ] .Those systems in general exhibit en-hanced second- order polarizabilities but less ther-mal…     

Synthesis and Second‐Order Nonlinearities of Chiral Prolinol‐Substituted Chromophores

A new series of thiophene‐ and furan‐containing chromophores with a chiral prolinol donor and a sulfone acceptor has been synthesized. The UV‐vis absorptions, second‐order nonlinear optical properties, and X‐ray crystal structures are described.     

Preparation and nonlinear optical properties of inorganic-organic hybrid films with various substituents on chromophores

Four kinds of hydroxy-ended azobenzene-type chromophores containing different substituent groups as electron donor or electron acceptor were synthesized and further reacted with 3-isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane (ICTES) to give alkoxysilane dyes via a urethane reaction. Following a sol-gel process of the alkoxysilane dyes, the inorganic-organic hybrid nonlinear optical (NLO) films were successfully prepared. Molecular structures of the resultant films were confirmed by elemental analysis, FTIR, and 1H NMR. The betaCT mu(g) values of the chromophores were evaluated by a solvatochromic method, and the second harmonic coefficients (d33) of the hybrid films were measured by in situ second harmonic generation (SHG) measurement. The hybrid films exhibited large optical nonlinearity and full transparency in the visible range. The effects of substituent group and position on betaCT mu(g) values of the chromophores and d33 values of the films were also discussed.     

Verbenone-based push–pull chromophores with giant first hyperpolarizabilities: A new structure–property correlation study

Novel chromophores Ch1–8 based verbenone bridge with various strong donors and acceptors were designed for applications in nonlinear optics, and the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of those verbenone-type chromophores were systematically investigated using the bond length alteration (BLA) theory, two states model (TSM) and sum-over-states (SOS) model. The results show that several verbenone-based chromophores possess remarkably large molecular second-order hyperpolarizabilities, which is due to its electron distribution close to the cyanine limit, the appropriate strength of acceptor, rather large change in dipole moment and low excitation energy. Computed hyperpolarizability (β_tot) of Ch6 also approach an outstanding 2922 × 10⁻³⁰ esu in TFE. The hyperpolarizability density analyses and two states model (TSM) were carried out to make a further insight into the origination of molecular nonlinearity of this unique system, suggesting that tuning structure of acceptor and polarity of the medium have great influence on the second-order nonlinear optical properties. More importantly, chromophores Ch1–Ch8 exhibited distinct features in two-dimensional second order NLO responses, and the strong electro-optical Pockels effect and optical rectification responses. The excellent electronic sum frequency generations (SFG) and difference frequency generations (DFG) effect are observed in these verbenone-type chromophores. These chromophores have a possibility to be appealing second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) materials, data storage materials and DSSCs materials from the standpoint of large β values, high LHE, and excellent two-dimensional second order NLO responses.     

Influence of thiazole regioisomerism on second-order nonlinear optical chromophores

Two series of matched and mismatched donor–thiazole–acceptor chromophores have been synthesized to disclose the role that the orientation of the thiazole ring plays on their second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties. Whereas previous theoretical studies predict that the matched systems show markedly higher NLO responses, our experimental results do not parallel this trend, showing differences between regioisomers much lower than those predicted.     

Ultrafast Photophysics of Regioisomeric Triphenylamine Dyes Having Dipolar D-π-A-A and Octupolar D-(π-A-A)3 Character with a Benzothiazole Unit in Matched or Mismatched Orientation

Benzothiazole is among prominent electron-withdrawing heteroarene moieties used in a variety of π-conjugated molecules. Its relative orientation with respect to the principal dipole vector(s) of chromophores derived thereof is crucial, affecting photophysical and nonlinear optical properties. Here we compare the photophysics and ultrafast dynamics of dipolar and octupolar molecules comprising a triphenylamine electron-donating core, ethynylene π-conjugated linker(s) and benzothiazole acceptor(s) having the matched or mismatched orientation (with respect to the direction of intramolecular charge transfer), while a carbaldehyde group is attached as an auxiliary acceptor. Among chromophores without the auxiliary acceptor, stronger fluorescence solvatochromism and faster excited state dynamics are exhibited for the derivatives with the mismatched geometry. On the contrary, introduction of the auxiliary acceptor to the benzothiazole unit enhances the intramolecular charge transfer ICT (featuring ultrafast dynamics of the excited state) for the matched geometry. The data confirm the crucial role of the relative orientation of asymmetric heteroaromatic unit (regioisomeric effect) in dipolar as well as in multipolar molecules in tuning linear and nonlinear optical properties as well as excited state dynamics.     

Second‐Order Nonlinear Optical Activity of Dipolar Chromophores Based on Pyrrole‐Hydrazono Donor Moieties

Donor1+donor2→acceptor : The second‐order NLO molecular properties of a class of dipolar chromophores that incorporate the following design elements are investigated: 1) a substituted hydrazono moiety as a strong donor; 2) a pyrrole ring as an auxiliary donor; 3) strong acceptor groups (see figure). Their first hyperpolarisabilities show good promise for use in electro‐optical devices.

     

Theoretical Studies on Electronic Spectra and Second-order Nonlinear Optical Properties of Barbituric Acid Derivatives Substituted with Schiff Base

Barbituric acid (BA) is a very important kind of compound in biological chemistry and medicine. It can be applied in abirritative medicine and antioxidants.1 It is an important sort of raw material for organic synthe-sis.2 It predicts the important reactive mechanism for organic synthesis.3 Some investigations for NLO prop-erties of a series of BA derivatives have been reported by Feng and coworkers in the view of theory.4,5 The Schiff base has extensive application in the fields of organi…     

Systematic study of the structure-property relationship of a series of ferrocenyl nonlinear optical chromophores

A series of novel nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophores 1-4 incorporating the ferrocenyl (Fc) group as an electron donor and 2-dicyanomethylene-3-cyano-4-methyl-2,5-dihydrofuran (TCF) derivatives as electron acceptors are presented. The use of a constant Fc donor and varied acceptors and bridges makes it possible to systematically determine the contribution of the conjugated bridge and the acceptor strength to chromophore nonlinear optical activity. The X-ray crystal structures of all four chromophores allow for the systematic investigation of the structure-property relationship for this class of molecules. For example, the crystal structures reveal that both cyclopentadienyl groups in the ferrocenyl donor contribute to the electron donating ability. The first-order hyperpolarizabilities beta of these chromophores, measured by hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) relative to p-nitroaniline are reported. These beta values are compared to those calculated by density functional theory (DFT). The excellent agreement between the theoretical and experimental beta values demonstrates that a linear relation exists between the hyperpolarizability and the bond length alternation. An electrooptic coefficient, r(33), of approximately 25 pm/V at 1300 nm, for compound 4, incorporated into a polymer matrix, is competitive with organic chromophores. Moreover, this r(33) is more than 30 times larger than the previously reported value for an organometallic chromophore in a poled polymer matrix. This work not only underscores the potential for Fc donor moieties, which have been underutilized, but also demonstrates that experimental characterization and theoretical simulations are now congruent, viable methods for assessing potential performance of NLO materials.     

Challenging the auxiliary donor effect on molecular hyperpolarizability in thiophene-containing nonlinear chromophores: X-ray crystallographic and optical measurements on two new isomeric chromophores

To reexamine the established "auxiliary donor" effect of thiophene in nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophores, we have prepared two isomeric donor-acceptor azo dyes, differing only in the position of the thiophene. Experimental analysis of these chromophores, including electric field-induced second harmonic generation (EFISH) and X-ray crystallography, contradicts previous experimental findings on similar chromophores but is consistent with the majority of computational precedents. We have found that the thiophene on the donor side produces a compound with a larger dipole moment; however, the isomer with the thiophene on the acceptor side is more nonlinear and has a higher figure of merit for NLO device applications.     

Synthesis of novel rod-shaped and star-shaped fluorescent phosphane oxides--nonlinear optical properties and photophysical properties

The design of a new class of fluorophores is presented. Some push-pull chromophores (D-pi-A) containing polyphenylethynyl units and a phosphane oxide moiety were efficiently prepared from common intermediates. Straightforward syntheses gave novel one-armed, rod-shaped and three-armed, star-shaped fluorophores. The optical properties of the resulting star-shaped derivatives were evaluated, showed high fluorescence quantum yields, and their excitation induces very efficient charge redistribution. Moreover, thanks to their push-pull character, the molecules exhibited significant second-order NLO properties with good transparency, up to 67x10(-30) esu at 1907 nm, with an absorption lambdamax at 369 nm. The effect of the donor group and of the number of phenylethynyl arms have been studied in this work.     

From controllable attached isolation moieties to possibly highly efficient nonlinear optical main-chain polyurethanes containing indole-based chromophores

For the first time, the indole-based NLO chromophores were embedded into the polymer main chain, and different isolation groups were attached to their donor side with the efforts of adjusting the NLO properties of the resultant main-chain polyurethanes, according to the site isolation principle. Thanks to the main-chain structure and the advantages of the indole-based chromophores, all the polymers show excellent transparency, good processability, thermal stability, and relatively good NLO effects. The tested NLO properties of the polymers demonstrate that there is a suitable isolation group present for the sulfonyl-based chromophore to boost its microscopic beta value to a possibly higher macroscopic NLO property efficiently.     

Organic Photovoltaic Devices Based on a New Class of Oligothienylenevinylene Derivatives as Donor Materials

A new class of donor–acceptor‐containing oligothienylenevinylenes with a triphenylamine donor and a dicyanovinyl group as acceptor has been synthesized and characterized. By extending the oligothiophene backbone, both the optical bandgaps and the charge‐transport properties can be tuned. These oligothienylenevinylene derivatives show intense charge‐transfer absorption bands that cover the entire visible spectrum, with low optical bandgaps of approximately 1.64 eV. In addition, electrochemical studies reveal that these compounds possess relatively large ionization potentials of approximately 5.5 eV. On the basis of these newly developed dicyanovinyl‐substituted chromophores as donor materials and C₆₀ as acceptor material, bilayer organic photovoltaic devices have been fabricated, with the best device showing a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.0 %, with an open‐circuit voltage of 0.68 V and a fill factor of 0.60 after thermal annealing. The obvious morphology change with the formation of small domains in thin films and the reduction of series resistance are believed to be responsible for the dramatic performance improvement upon thermal annealing.