Preparation and property of soluble azobenzene-containing substituted poly(1-alkyne)s optical limiting materials

Two novel poly(1-alkyne)s containing azobenzene nonlinear optical chromophoric group, poly(4-(4-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)phenylazophenyl]carbonyl)oxy-1-butyne) (P1) and poly(11-(4-[4-(n-dodecyloxy)phenylazophenyl]carbonyl)oxy-1-undecyne) (P2), were synthesized by [Rh(nbd)Cl]2–Et3N catalysts and characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR, GPC and UV–vis techniques. Their optical limiting and nonlinear optical properties were investigated using 8 ns pulse at 532 nm. The results show that these soluble functional poly(1-alkyne)s possess good optical limiting properties and large nonlinear optical properties.