Charge transfer and first hyperpolarizability: cage-like radicals C59X and lithium encapsulated Li@C59X (X=B, N)

Structural, Electronic, and Nonlinear Optical Properties of C66H4 and C70Cl6 Encapsulating Li and F Atoms

Recently, nonclassical fullerene derivatives C66H4 and C70Cl6, which both contain two negatively curved moieties of heptagons, have been successfully synthesized. Inspired by these experimental achievements, the structural and electronic properties of C66H4, C70Cl6, Li@C66H4, F@C66H4, Li@C70Cl6, and F@C70Cl6 were systematical studied through density functional theory calculations in this work. Our results show that the reduction of the front molecular orbital gap of fullerene derivatives occurs with the introduction of Li and F atoms. After quantitative analysis of back-donations of charge between an encapsulated atom and an external carbon cage, it is found that C66H4 and C70Cl6 prefer to act as electron acceptors. It is interesting to note that the strong covalent nature of the interactions between a F atom and a carbon cage is observed, whereas the weak covalent and strong ionic interactions occur between a Li atom and a carbon cage. On the other hand, according to the first hyperpolarizability results, the encapsulation of the Li atom enhances the nonlinear optical response of fullerene derivatives. This work provides a strategy to improve nonlinear optical properties of C66H4 and C70Cl6, reveals the internal mechanism of the contribution from Li and F atoms to endohedral fullerene derivatives, and will contribute to the designation of endohedral fullerene derivative devices.

Nonlinear optical properties of aluminum nitride nanotubes doped by excess electron: a first principle study

Aluminum nitride nanotubes (AlNNTs) doped by the excess electron, e@AlNNT and M@N-AlNNT (M = Li, Na, K), have been designed and their geometrical, electronic, and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties have been explored theoretically. The results showed that the excess electron narrows the energy gap between HOMO and LUMO values (E_H-L) of the doped systems in the range of 3.42-5.37 eV, which is due to a new energy level HOMO formed for the doped excess electron, with higher energy than the original HOMO of AlNNT. Importantly, the doped excess electron considerably increases the first hyperpolarizability (β₀) from 130 a.u. of the undoped AlNNT to 646 a.u. for e@AlNNT, 2606 a.u. for Li@N-AlNNT, while 1.14 × 10⁵ a.u. for Na@N-AlNNT, and 1.37 × 10⁶ a.u. for K@N-AlNNT. The enormous β₀ values for Na@N-AlNNT and K@N-AlNNT are attributed to the low transition energy. These results demonstrate that AlNNTs are a promising material in high-performance NLO nanomaterials for electronic devices.

New insight into the photophysics and reactivity of trigonal and tetrahedral arylboron compounds

The photophysics and reactivity of two tetraphenylborate salts and triphenylborane have been studied using ultrafast transient absorption, steady-state fluorescence, electron paramagnetic resonance with spin trapping, and DFT calculations. The singlet excited state of tetraarylborates exhibit extended π-orbital coupling between two adjacent aryl groups. The maximum fluorescence band, as well as the transient absorption bands centered at 560 nm (τ = 1.05 ns) and 680 nm (τ = 4.35 ns) are influenced by solvent viscosity and polarity, indicative of a twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) state. Orbital contour plots of the HOMO and LUMO orbitals of the tetraarylboron compounds support the existence of electron delocalization between two aryl groups in the LUMO. This TICT-state and aryl-aryl electron extension is not observed for the trigonal arylboron compound, in which excited π-orbital coupling only occurs between the boron atom and one aryl group, which restricts the twist motion of the aryl-boron bond. The excited triplet state is deactivated primarily through aryl-boron bond cleavage, yielding aryl and diphenylboryl radicals. In the presence of oxygen, this photochemistry results in phenoxyl and diphenylboroxyl radicals, as confirmed by EPR spectroscopy of spin trapped radical adducts. The TICT transition and radical generation is not expected for BoDIPY molecules where the rotational vibration of the B-aryl bond is rigid, restricting changes in the geometric structure. In this sense, this work contributes to the development of new BoDIPY derivatives where the TICT transition may be observed for aryl ligands with free rotational vibrations in the BoDIPY structure.

The encapsulated lithium effect on the first hyperpolarizability of C60Cl2 and C60F2

In this paper, we report a study on the structure and first hyperpolarizability of C60Cl2 and C60F2. The calculation results show that the first hyperpolarizabilities of C60Cl2 and C60F2 were 172 au and 249 au, respectively. Compared with the fullerenes, the first hyperpolarizability of C60Cl2 increased from 0 au to 172 au, while the first hyperpolarizability of C60F2 increased from 0 au to 249 au. In order to further increase the first hyperpolarizability of C60Cl2 and C60F2, Li@C60Cl2 and Li@C60F2 were obtained by introducing a lithium atom to C60Cl2 and C60F2. The first hyperpolarizabilities of Li@C60Cl2 and Li@C60F2 were 2589 au and 985 au, representing a 15-fold and 3.9-fold increase, respectively, over those of C60Cl2 and C60F2. The transition energies of four molecules (C60Cl2, Li@C60Cl2, C60F2, Li@C60F2) were calculated, and were found to be 0.17866 au, 0.05229 au, 0.18385 au, and 0.05212 au, respectively. A two-level model explains why the first hyperpolarizability increases for Li@C60Cl2 and Li@C60F2.

Enhancement of nonlinear optical properties of graphene oxide-based structures: push–pull models

Through DFT calculations and the finite field approach, it is possible to identify some structural and electronic aspects that could lead to enhancement of the nonlinear optical (NLO) molecular properties of graphene oxide and its derivatives.