Two-photon absorption, nonlinear optical and UV–vis spectral properties of 2-furanylmethyleneaminoantipyrine, benzylideneaminoantipyrine and cinnamilideneaminoantipyrine

Organic compounds as functional materials have attracted much keen interest in the past three decades owing to their potential applications in science and technology. Currently, great efforts have been made in looking for suitable photo-responsive materials among the multifarious organic compounds. Herein we reported the photophysical properties of 2-furanylmethylene-aminoantipyrine (FMAAP), benzylideneaminoantipyrine (BIAAP) and cinnamilideneamino-antipyrine (CIAAP) studied by a combined experimental and theoretical investigation. Two-photon absorption measurements give the cross-section values of 1.350 × 10−50 cm4 s/photon for FMAAP, 1.046 × 10−50 cm4 s/photon for BIAAP and 2.047 × 10−50 cm4 s/photon for CIAAP. The calculated first-hyperpolarization values are of 2.303 × 10−30, 1.257 × 10−29, 2.889 × 10−29 cm5/esu for FMAAP, BIAAP and CIAAP, respectively. UV–vis spectroscopy technique further reveals that the studied compounds display long-range electron transfer characteristics by absorbing light of specific wavelengths of 294.5 nm for FMAAP, 293.2 nm for BIAAP and 303.1 nm for CIAAP. All the results indicate that the studied compounds are promising candidates of functionally photo-responsive materials.