Preparation and third order nonlinear optical properties of corrole functionalized GO nanohybrids

Abstract

Three novel corroles, 5,15-bis(phenyl)-10-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxylphenyl)- corrole PC, 5,15-bis(naphthyl)-10-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxylphenyl)-corrole NAPC and 5,15-bis(pyrenyl)-10-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxylphenyl)-corrole PYPC, were designed and synthesized. Their graphene oxide (GO) nanohybrids, PC-GO, NAPC-GO and PYPC-GO, were prepared by a covalent functionalization method and characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The third order nonlinear optical (NLO) behavior of the corroles and their corresponding nanohybrids was investigated using open aperture Z-scan technique at 532 nm with 4 ns laser pulses. The nanohybrids showed enhanced NLO properties in comparison to the corresponding corroles. In addition, the NLO properties of nanohybrids increase in the order of NAPC-GO < PC-GO < PYPC-GO, while the corrole molecules exhibit NLO performance in the same order of NAPC < PC < PYPC, implying the NLO response originating from the corrole moiety play a more important role in the NLO properties of the nanohybrids than that arising from the photo-induced electron or energy transfer process between GO and corrole molecules. Importantly, at same transmission intensity, all the corroles showed typical nonlinear reverse saturation absorption (RSA) behavior, while all the nanohybrids exhibited a flip over behavior from saturation absorption (SA) to RSA. The different NLO response between the corrole molecules and their nanohybrids implies their promising applications as NLO materials.