Triphenylmethyl and triphenylsilyl based molecular glasses for photonic applications

Abstract

Triphenylmethyl and triphenylsilyl structural fragments can be used to obtain glass forming, solution processable materials from polar chromophore molecules. Large number of compounds has been synthesized taking advantage of this approach, making it possible to identify some structure-property relations. Regarding the non-linear optical (NLO) properties of the given materials it is evident that triphenylmethyl groups help shielding unwanted NLO efficiency limiting dipolar interactions between polar chromophores in solid films. Chromophore stacking is still observed for compounds with large dipole momentum values. The glass transition temperatures of the compounds increase with the molecular weight for the studied material class, reaching values up to 130°C.