The influence of pentafluorophenyl groups on the nonlinear optical (NLO) performance of high generation dendrons and dendrimers

Exceptional three- to six-photon absorption at organometallic dendrimers

The light-intensity dependence of multi-photon absorption (MPA) affords outstanding spatial control. Furthermore, compared to the higher-energy photons needed for analogous linear absorption, the lower-energy photons involved in MPA often correspond to important wavelengths, such as those of the biological and telecommunications "windows". It is therefore of crucial importance to develop molecules that exhibit outstanding MPA cross-sections. However, although progress has been made with two-photon absorption, there is currently a dearth of efficient instantaneous n-photon absorbers (n > 2), a key reason being the scarcity of structure-property studies required to understand higher-order MPA. We herein report systematically-varied metallodendrimers up to third-generation in size, together with their nonlinear absorptive responses over the spectral range 600-2520 nm. We show that the dendrimers exhibit exceptional instantaneous three- to six-photon absorption cross-sections, with maximal values increasing with dendrimer generation and installation of solubilizing group, and we report that changing the groups at the dendrimer periphery can shift the wavelengths of the nPA maxima. We also describe time-dependent DFT studies that have facilitated assignment of the key linear and nonlinear transitions and disclosed the crucial role of the metal in the outstanding MPA performance.

Dendronized Hyperbranched Polymer: A New Architecture for Second-Order Nonlinear Optics

Organic/polymeric second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) materials, which rely on the poling-induced non-centrosymmetric arrangement of NLO chromophores, have played a very important role in laser technology and optical fiber communication, due to their ultra-fast response speed, excellent machining performance and low dielectric constant. However, the NLO chromophores have the large dipole moments with strong intramolecular charge transfer, which lead to the intermolecular electrostatic interactions to tend to the centrosymmetric arrangement and decrease the poling efficiency. Since the special three-dimensional spatial separation can minimize these strong intermolecular electrostatic interactions during poling process, dendrimers and hyperbranched polymers have been considered as better topology for the next generation of highly efficient NLO materials. In 2013, by the attachment of low generation dendrimers to the hyperbranched backbone, a new dendritic architecture of dendronized hyperbranched polymer (DHP) was proposed for improving the comprehensive performance of NLO materials. Recent results showed many advantages of DHPs in NLO field, such as easy syntheses, large NLO coefficients and high orientation stability, etc. In this review, the latest advancement of DHPs, including the design principle, synthesis, as well as their application as NLO materials is summarized. The new opportunities arising from DHPs are also summarized in the future perspective.

Photo-crosslinkable second-order nonlinear optical polymer: facile synthesis and enhanced NLO thermostability

A new photo-crosslinkable second-order nonlinear optical system was designed and prepared by azido-yne and the thiol–ene click reactions.

Janus second-order nonlinear optical dendrimers: their controllable molecular topology and corresponding largely enhanced performance

A new type of Janus dendrimers, consisting of two different side dendrons with the dipole orientation of the second-order nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophore moieties partially in a non-centrosymmetric direction, was intelligently designed and synthesized in order to enhance the macroscopic NLO performance and break through the limitation of NLO efficiency in the current molecular topological structure of azo chromophore-based polymers. This kind of Janus dendritic structure was constructed by the combination of convergent and divergent methods, with the utilization of a powerful "click chemistry reaction". The obtained three dendrimers, D-13N, D-17N and D-21N, show very high NLO performance, especially the dramatically enhanced NLO coefficient of 299 pm V-1 for D-13N, which is the highest value ever reported for polymers containing a simple azo chromophore. The new dendrimers provide a clear structure-properties relationship between high NLO efficiency and the controllable molecular topology with the non-centrosymmetrical alignment of dipole orientation, thus opening up a new avenue for the further development of NLO dendrimers with high performance and more importantly providing some clues for the rational design of functional dendrimers with controllable molecular topology.

Dendronized hyperbranched polymers containing isolation chromophores: design, synthesis and further enhancement of the comprehensive NLO performance

New dendronized hyperbranched polymers (DHPs) constructed by dendronized monomers, exhibit good comprehensive NLO performance, especially for thermostability.

A fast track strategy toward highly functionalized dendrimers with different structural layers: an “onion peel approach”

A novel strategy is described for the rapid syntheses of polyhydroxylated dendrimers in which the layer by layer building blocks are different from one another. The resulting dendrimers showed no cytotoxicity.

The integration of an “X” type dendron into polymers to further improve the comprehensive NLO performance

Three polymers were designed and synthesized, by utilizing an “X” type dendrimer containing five nitro-based azo chromophore moieties, which exhibit good processability and good nonlinear optical performance, especially for NLO thermostability.