Synthesis and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Chromophores with 1,8-Dimethoxy-9,10-dihydroanthracene and Ring-locked Triene

The new chromophore molecules with nonlinear optical (NLO) properties were prepared by Knoevenagel condensation from 1,8-dimethoxy-4,5-diformyl-9,10-dihydroanthracene and isophorone derivative in the presence of piperidine and acetic acid. In these chromophore, the ring-locked trienes were employed as the conjugation bridge and electron acceptor in D-π-A units. The key intermediate dialdehyde was conveniently prepared via a three step reaction, in which 1,8-dimethoxyanthraquinone was reduced with zinc/acetic acid and sodium/ethanol successively, followed by formylation with 1,1-dichlorodimethyl ether in the presence of TiCl₄. The solvatochromism indicate that they have higher second-order nonlinear hyperpolarizability μβ values than the corresponding reference compound, without red shift of the charge transfer band.