Design and syntheses of efficient and thermally stable diamino chromophores for NLO application

Abstract

A novel series of diamino imidazole-type chromophores has been synthesized, which can be chemically incorporated into polymer matrices. Furthermore, their molecular optical nonlinearity, transparency and thermal stability were determined and studied comparatively. Theoretical calculation and experimental results indicate that good nonlinearity-transparency-thermal stability is well balanced in chromophore 4, which possesses a μβ0 of 554.8×10-48esu, a rather blue-shifted absorption peak at 384 nm in THF, and a high decomposition temperature Td of 377°C. It is strongly suggested from these results that multiple substitution strategy should be useful for designing novel NLO chromophores.