Synthesis, crystal growth and characterization of organic NLO material: N-(4-nitrophenyl)-N-methyl-2-aminoacetonitrile (NPAN)

The N-(4-nitrophenyl)-N-methyl-2-aminoacetonitrile (NPAN) raw materials have been synthesized starting from N-methylanilide. Its solubility in different organic solvents was determined gravimetrically. Based on the solubility and crystalline nature of NPAN, an ideal solvent was selected for growing single-crystal NPAN crystal by the low-temperature solution growth technique. The large transparent yellow single crystals of NPAN were harvested in the size 36×8×8 mm3 using 2-butanone as the solvent and in the size 21×15×15 mm3 with nitromethane as the solvent. CHN microanalysis, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), infrared (IR) spectra, and optical transmittance analysis have been performed to characterize the title compound.Second-harmonic generation (SHG) of the NPAN crystal was observed using Nd:YAG laser with a fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm.