A melamine-based organic–inorganic hybrid material revealing excellent optical performance and moderate thermal stability

Abstract

Organic–inorganic hybrid nonlinear optical (NLO) materials have drawn increasing attention, and incorporate the suitable physicochemical characteristics of inorganic compounds with the excellent optical performance of organic molecules. Herein, a novel melamine-based organic–inorganic hybrid material, (H₇C₃N₆)·(H₆C₃N₆)ZnCl₃ (1), was successfully synthesized by using (H₇C₃N₆)⁺ as a structure building block and introducing d¹⁰ configuration metal Zn²⁺. Compound 1 has a large SHG response (2.8 × KDP), a high birefringence (Δn = 0.255@1064 nm), a short cutoff edge (236 nm), and moderate thermal stability (250 °C), demonstrating its potential as an applicable ultraviolet (UV) NLO material. This finding may pave the way for new NLO materials with targeted properties.