Synthesis of donor–acceptor molecules based on isoxazolones for investigation of their nonlinear optical properties

Abstract

A series of donor–acceptor molecules that incorporate N,N-dimethylaniline or carbazole as the common electron donor and 3-phenyl-5-isoxazolone as the electron acceptor moiety have been synthesized and their structural and optical properties and self-assembly behaviors were investigated. All these compounds showed the property of aggregation induced emission (AIE). These compounds with different donors and different conjugation could be self-assembled into different superstructures such as ribbon-like architectures, hollow nanospheres, multilayer plates or rhombic microplates by phase transfer methodology or solvent-vapor techniques. Furthermore, the nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of the four D–A molecules were studied by the Z-scan technique and all of these compounds exhibited third-order nonlinear absorption effects.