Novel second-order nonlinear optical chromophores containing multi-heteroatoms in donor moiety: Design, synthesis, DFT studies and electro-optic activities

•A series of novel second-order nonlinear optical chromophores has been synthesized and systematically characterized.•The resulting NLO chromophores exhibited both good thermal stability and good solubility in common organic solvents.•The film-C displayed the highest r33 value of 31 pm/v at the same doping concentrations of 20 wt%.

A series of novel second-order nonlinear optical chromophores containing additional heteroatoms in donor moieties has been synthesized and systematically characterized. The resulting nonlinear optical chromophores exhibited both good thermal stability (the decomposition temperature in the range of 249 °C–275 °C) and good solubility in common organic solvents such as chloroform, acetone and N, N-dimethyl formamide. In order to investigate the influence of additional heteroatom on the electro-optic activities, UV–Vis spectra and density functional theory calculations were carried out. The results revealed that the donor derived from m-phenylenediamine had higher electron density compared with other three donors. As to electro-optic activities, the doped polymer film-C displayed the highest electro-optic coefficient value of 31 pm/v at the doping concentration of 20 wt%. All these results indicated that the nonlinear optical activities could be enhanced by introducing suitable additional heteroatoms into donor moiety.

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