Abstract:

A novel porphyrin (1) and its zinc, copper complexes (2, 3) were synthesized and characterized by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, electron spray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and elemental analysis. The circumfluent effect of the porphyrin was exerted on the imidazole, which resulted in the chemical shifts of three hydrogen atoms moving upfield. The Soret band in the UV-Vis spectrum of the porphyrin was split because of this effect. The lowest energy conformation of the porphyrin obtained by simulated annealing coincided with the analysis of the spectrum where the imidazole was above the porphyrin. We also studied the third-order nonlinear optical properties of the porphyrin and its zinc, copper complexes using Z-scan techniques. We found that the porphyrin and its zinc, copper complexes all gave rise to a strong reverse saturable absorption and that the nonlinear optical property of the copper complex was stronger than that of the zinc complex.

Key words: Spectral property, Z-scan technique, Metalloporphyrin, Nonlinear optical property