Theoretical investigation of the structures, stabilities, and NLO responses of calcium-doped pyridazine: alkaline-earth-based alkaline salt electrides.

Currently, whether alkaline-earth-doped compounds with electride characteristics are novel candidates for high-performance nonlinear optical (NLO) materials is unknown. In this paper, using quantum chemical computations, we show that: when doping calcium atoms into a family of alkaline-substituted pyridazines, alkaline-earth-based alkaline salt electrides M-H₃C₄N₂⋯Ca (M=H, Li, and K) with distended excess electron clouds are formed. Interestingly, from the triplet to the singlet state, the chemical valence of calcium atom changes from +1 to 0, and the dipole moment direction (μ₀) of the molecule reverses for each M-H₃C₄N₂⋯Ca. Changing pyridazine from without (H₄C₄N₂⋯Ca) to with one alkaline substituent (M-H₃C₄N₂⋯Ca, M=Li and K), the ground state changes from the triplet to the singlet state. The alkaline earth metal doping effect (electride effect) and alkaline salt effect on the static first hyperpolarizabilities (β₀) demonstrates that (1) the β₀ value is increased approximately 1371-fold from 2 (pyridazine, H₄C₄N₂) to 2745au (Ca-doped pyridazine, H₄C₄N₂⋯Ca), (2) the β₀ value is increased approximately 1146-fold from 2 in pyridazine (H₄C₄N₂) to 2294au in an Li-substituted pyridazine (Li-H₃C₄N₂), and (3) the β₀ value is increased 324-(M=Li) and 106-(M=K) fold from 826 (MLi) and 2294au (MK) to 268,679 (M=Li) and 245,878au (M=K), respectively, from the alkalized pyridazine (M-H₃C₄N₂) to the Ca-doped pyridazine (M-H₃C₄N₂⋯Ca). These results may provide a new means for designing high-performance NLO materials.