Nonlinear Optical Properties of Porphyrin Derivatives with Electron-donating or Electron-withdrawing Substituents

To investigate photoelectric properties of meso-extended porphyrin derivatives with electron-donating or elec- tron-withdrawing substituents, a series of functionalized porphyrin materials have been designed and synthesized by Suzuki coupling reaction. The meso-extended structures were fully characterized by IH NMR, IR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The photophysical properties of porphyrin derivatives were carefully examined by UV-Visible and fluorescence spectra, and the solvatochromic effect was observed and discussed. In particular, Z-scan technique was employed to characterize the third-order nonlinear optical （NLO） properties of the products such as nonlinear absorption and refraction, the third-order nonlinear refractive indexes （x（3）-value） of these porphyrin derivatives achieved 3.9 × 10-12 esu. In addition, the compounds could be self-assembled into highly organized morphologies through phase-exchange method. All the results indicated that the discotic materials have the potential for optoelec- tronic applications.