Looking
for ultraviolet (UV) crystals with large birefringence
that are easy to grow, and nontoxic, has always been a hotspot in
the field of optical materials. Thus, finding novel chromophores and
discovering new candidates that are constructed by them enable us
to obtain high performance short-wavelength birefringent crystals.
Here, we synthesized five guanidine-based crystals with large birefringence
(calcd. 0.072–0.371@532 nm) and short UV cutoff edges (201–254
nm). Among them, [C(NH2)3]HC2O4·H2O possesses a giant birefringence
of Δn = 0.371@532 nm, which is even larger
than that of most of the commercialized UV birefringent crystals.
Moreover, these crystals can be obtained by a simple aqueous solution
volatilization method, and they have unique advantages including low
cost, easy to grow, and free of toxic reactants. Further analysis
confirmed that the large birefringence in them originates from the
π-conjugated [C(NH2)3] units, which implies
that the guanidine-based compound is a promising system for exploring
UV and even deep-UV materials with large birefringence.