Synthesis and electro-optic activities of novel polycarbonates bearing tricyanopyrroline-based nonlinear optical chromophores with excellent thermal stability of dipole alignment

Two series of novel electro-optic (EO) polycarbonates incorporating two kinds of tricyanopyrroline-based nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophores were designed and synthesized. These new polycarbonates were prepared through the facile copolymerization of diol NLO chromophores and bisphenol A bis(chloroformate), and the successful preparations were demonstrated by 1H NMR and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra. These polycarbonates possessed good thermal stabilities and also showed higher glass transition temperatures (Tg) in the range of 156–165 °C. After corona poling, the EO coefficients (r33) of two poled polycarbonates films were up to 52 pm/V (PC-DTCPC-Ph-2) and 46 pm/V (PC-DTCPC-FPh-2) at the wavelength of 1310 nm. The higher Tgs endow the polycarbonatesʹ poled films with good temporal stability of poling-induced dipole alignment, and the resulting poled films of PC-DTCPC-Ph-2 and PC-DTCPC-FPh-2 could retain 95% and 93% of the initial EO activities at 85 °C for more than 500 h respectively.