Synthesis, growth, and characterization of nonlinear optical material l-arginine iodate crystal

Single crystals of nonlinear optical l-arginine iodate (l-Arg·2HIO3) (C6H14N4O2·2HIO3), were successfully grown for the first time by the temperature-lowering method and also by the slow evaporation method at a constant temperature (30 °C) from its aqueous solution at pH value of 6. Crystals were of average dimensions 3 × 2.5 × 1.0 cm3 by optimizing the growth parameters. Initially, solubility studies were carried out for four different solvents such as water, water–methanol, water–ethanol, and water–acetone. Among the four solvents, the solubility of l-Arg·2HIO3 was found to be the highest in water and hence crystallization of l-Arg·2HIO3 was carried out from aqueous solution. Morphology studies reveal that the crystals grow with reasonable growth rate along the [100], [001], [110¯] and [011] direction. As-grown crystals were characterized by density measurement, X-ray powder diffraction studies, infrared spectrophotometer, UV–Vis spectrometer, laser induced damage threshold studies and nonlinear optical study.