A donor–π–acceptor type series of Triphenylamine–dicyanovinylene-based chromophores (
DPMN1–DPMN11
) was designed theoretically by the structural tailoring of π-linkers of experimentally synthesized molecules
DTTh
and
DTTz
to exploit changes in the optical properties and their nonlinear optical materials (NLO) behaviour. Density functional theory (DFT) computations were employed to understand the electronic structures, absorption spectra, charge transfer phenomena and the influence of these structural modifications on NLO properties. Interestingly, all investigated chromophores exhibited lower band gap (2.22–2.60 eV) with broad absorption spectra in the visible region, reflecting the remarkable NLO response. Furthermore, natural bond orbital (NBO) findings revealed a strong push–pull mechanism in
DPMN1–DPMN11
as donor and π-conjugates exhibited positive, while all acceptors showed negative values. Examination of electronic transitions from donor to acceptor moieties via π-conjugated linkers revealed greater linear (〈
α
〉 = 526.536–641.756 a.u.) and nonlinear (
β
tot
= 51 313.8–314 412.661 a.u.) response. It was noted that the chromophores containing imidazole in the second p-linker expressed greater hyperpolarizability when compared with the ones containing pyrrole. This study reveals that by controlling the type of π-spacers, interesting metal-free NLO materials can be designed, which can be valuable for the hi-tech NLO applications.
Non-fullerene (NF)-based compounds have attracted much attention as compared to fullerene-based materials because of their promising optoelectronic properties, lower synthetic cost and greater stability.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.