Star-shaped, nonlinear optical molecular glass bearing 2-(3-cyano-4-{4-[ethyl-(2-hydroxy-ethyl)-amino]-phenyl}-5-oxo-1-{4-[4-(3-oxo-3-phenylpropenyl)-phenoxy]-butyl}-1,5-dihydro-pyrrol-2-ylidene)-malononitrile

Abstract

Novel, photocrosslinkable, star-shaped molecules have been synthesized by attaching a tricyanopyrroline (TCP)-based chromophore to 6-(4-(1,1-bis-[4-(5-carboxy-pentyloxy)-phenyl]-ethyl}-phenoxy)-hexanoic acid. The chromophore 2-(3-cyano-4-(4-diethylamino-phenyl)-5oxo- 1-{4-[4-(3-oxo-3-phenyl-propenyl)-phenoxyl-butyl)-1,5-dihydro-pyrrol-2-ylidene)-malononitrile is a second-order nonlinear optical active compound and bears a chalcone moiety that is sensitive to UV light (lambda = 320-350 nm) for 2 pi + 2 pi photocycloaddition. The resultant molecules exhibited good processability and showed 29-37 prn/V of the maximum electro-optic coefficient at 1300 nm. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.