Synthesis, growth, structural, optical and thermal properties of a new organic salt crystal: 3-nitroanilinium trichloroacetate

• Good organic NLO crystal grown by solution growth technique at room temperature.
• It has wide transparency window between 400 nm and 2500 nm.
• TG–DTA studies show that the title compound is stable upto 150 °C.
• Structural, optical and thermal properties were discussed.

A new organic non-linear optical salt 3-nitroanilinium trichloroacetate has been synthesized and single crystals grown by slow solvent evaporation solution growth technique at room temperature using methanol as the solvent. The 1H and 13C Nuclear magnetic resonance spectra were recorded to establish the molecular structure of the title salt. The crystal structure of the title crystal has been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and it belongs to monoclinic crystal system with non-centrosymmetric space group P21. Fourier transform infrared spectral study has been carried out to confirm the presence of various functional groups. The optical transmittance spectrum was recorded in the range 200–2500 nm, to find the optical transmittance window and lower cut off wavelength. The thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analyses were carried out to establish the thermal stability of the title crystal. The second harmonic generation in the title crystal was confirmed by the modified Kurtz–Perry powder test employing the Nd: YAG laser as the source for infrared radiation.