Issue 36, 2015

Auxiliary donor for tetrahydroquinoline-containing nonlinear optical chromophores: enhanced electro-optical activity and thermal stability

Abstract

A series of chromophores FTC, L1 and L2 have been synthesized based on three different types of electron donors, including diethylaminophenyl, tetrahydroquinolinyl and N-(4-dimethylaminophenyl) tetrahydroquinolinyl groups respectively, with the same thiophene bridges and strong tricyanovinyldihydrofuran (TCF) acceptors. In particular, the donor part of the chromophore L2 was modified with an additional donor N-(4-dimethylaminophenyl) substituent, resulting in enhanced thermal stability and electro-optic activity. Cyclic voltammetry measurements showed that chromophore L2 had a smaller energy gap than chromophore L1 due to the additional donor. Moreover, density functional theory calculations suggested that the molecular quadratic hyperpolarizability (μβ) value of chromophore L2 is 29% and 44% larger than that of chromophores L1 and FTC, respectively. The doped film containing the chromophore L2 showed an r33 value of 100 pm V−1 at the concentration of 25 wt% which is much higher than the EO activity of the chromophore L1 (57 pm V−1) and two times higher than that of the traditional chromophore FTC (39 pm V−1).

Graphical abstract: Auxiliary donor for tetrahydroquinoline-containing nonlinear optical chromophores: enhanced electro-optical activity and thermal stability

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
03 Jun 2015
Accepted
04 Aug 2015
First published
06 Aug 2015

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2015,3, 9283-9291

Author version available

Auxiliary donor for tetrahydroquinoline-containing nonlinear optical chromophores: enhanced electro-optical activity and thermal stability

F. Liu, M. Zhang, H. Xiao, Y. Yang, H. Wang, J. Liu, S. Bo, Z. Zhen, X. Liu and L. Qiu, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2015, 3, 9283 DOI: 10.1039/C5TC01610J

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