Abstract
The keto-enol (K-E) tautomerization equilibrium, more precisely, the keto-amine/enol-imine equilibrium, has been investigated for a series of substituted salicylideneanilines in view of designing compounds with a contrast of second-order nonlinear optical properties. Substituting the salicylidene ring by an acceptor group or the other ring by a donor prevents the K form from being stable, whereas in the other cases, the K form can easily be converted to the E form due to the small activation barrier, figuring out in most cases that the K form is metastable. For a representative set of donor/acceptor substituents, the E and K forms present a sufficiently large contrast of β to allow its detection by using electric-field-induced second harmonic generation or hyper-Rayleigh scattering. The largest β values are mainly associated with species bearing a donor in the para position of the salicylidene ring and an acceptor on the other ring whereas the largest β values are generally found for the E form.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 9914-9923 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of physical chemistry A |
Volume | 111 |
Issue number | 39 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 4 Oct 2007 |