Spectroscopic and quantum chemical perspectives on 2-amino 5-methylpyridinium 4-nitrobenzoate – An organic single crystals for optoelectronics device applications

Abstract

In this work, an optical quality single crystals of 2-amino 5-methylpyridinium 4-nitrobenzoate (2A5MPNB) were grown by slow evaporation solution growth technique using methanol as a solvent. The phases and functional groups of 2A5MPNB have been confirmed through powder X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) studies, respectively. The optical transmittance window and the lower cut-off wavelength of the 2A5MPNB have been identified by UV–Vis–NIR studies. Dielectric and photoconductivity studies were also performed for the grown crystals. In order to analyze the mechanical strength Vickers hardness studies were taken for the grown crystal. The thermal behaviour was investigated by TG/DTA studies. NLO and laser damage properties were explored using Nd:YAG laser. Moreover, the quantum chemical calculations on 2A5MPNB have been performed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations using the B3LYP method with 6–311++G(d,p) basis set. The predicted first hyperpolarizability is found to be 14.45 times greater than that of urea and suggests that the title compound could be an attractive material for nonlinear optical applications.