Growth, characterization and cognition of 2-cyanopyridinium perchlorate single crystals for nonlinear optical applications

The fascinating electronic applications attracted researchers to explore the field of nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. The slow evaporation of solvent technique (SEST) was employed to grow the 2-cyanopyridinium perchlorate (2-CPPC) NLO single crystals. The cell parameters of the grown 2-CPPC crystal are confirmed by the single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) study. The powder X-ray diffraction studies confirm the crystallinity of 2-CPPC crystals, and the peaks were indexed. The computation for the geometry optimization, HOMO–LUMO energy gap, global reactivity parameters, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis, polarizability, and hyperpolarizability of the 2-CPPC molecule was done using B3LYP (6-311G basis set) functional of DFT method. The experimental FTIR and UV–Vis results of the 2-CPPC compound were compared with the simulated results. The second harmonic generation (SHG) study for the 2-CPPC crystal was employed using Kurtz–Perry powder technique. Single beam Z-scan technique using He–Ne laser is used to study the third-order NLO properties.