Triaryl-1,3,5-triazinane-2,4,6-triones (isocyanurates) peripherally functionalized by donor groups: synthesis and study of their linear and nonlinear optical properties.

The linear optical (LO) and nonlinear optical (NLO) properties of a series of isocyanurates functionalized by donor arms at the periphery are reported herein. These octupolar derivatives were obtained in a straightforward way from commercial isocyanate derivatives and were fully characterized. Although several of these compounds are known, those that exhibited the largest NLO activities are all new compounds. In terms of second-order activity, several of these derivatives exhibit remarkable activity/transparency tradeoffs. In terms of third-order activity, the longer derivatives with the stronger donor groups (X = NH(2), NMe(2), or NPh(2)) were shown to possess significant two-photon absorption cross sections. These strongly luminescent derivatives exhibit two-photon absorption cross sections up to 410 GM. DFT computations were also conducted to unravel their electronic structures and to rationalize their NLO properties. To our knowledge, the present study is the first concerned with the nonlinear optical properties of these original cyclotrimers.