Elsevier

Journal of Crystal Growth

Volume 420, 15 June 2015, Pages 11-16
Journal of Crystal Growth

Synthesis, crystal growth, solubility, structural, optical, dielectric and microhardness studies of Benzotriazole-4-hydroxybenzoic acid single crystals

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2015.03.033Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Benzotriazole-4-hydroxybenzoic acid crystal was grown by solution growth method.

  • BHBA belongs to Pna21 space group of orthorhombic crystal system.

  • FWHM observed on (110) plane of BHBA crystal is 46 arcsec on.

  • SHG efficiency of BHBA is 3.7 times greater than that of KDP crystal.

Abstract

Organic Benzotriazole-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (BHBA), a novel second-order nonlinear optical single crystal was grown by solution growth method. The solubility and nucleation studies were performed for BHBA crystal at different temperatures 30, 35, 40 45 and 50 °C. Single crystal X-ray diffraction study reveals that the BHBA belongs to Pna21 space group of orthorhombic crystal system. The crystal perfection of BHBA was examined from powder and high resolution X-ray diffraction analysis. UV–visible and photoluminescence spectra were recorded to study its transmittance and excitation, emission behaviors respectively. Kurtz powder second harmonic generation test reveals that, the frequency conversion efficiency of BHBA is 3.7 times higher than that of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss values were estimated for BHBA crystal at various temperatures and frequencies. The mechanical property of BHBA crystal was studied on (110), (010) and (012) planes by using Vicker׳s microhardness test. The chemical etching study was performed on (012) facet of BHBA crystal to analyze its growth feature.

Introduction

The development of nonlinear optical materials led to its suitability for various applications in the area of laser technology, optical telecommunication, image processing, optical computing, opto-electrical switching and data storage devices [1], [2]. Second order nonlinear optical materials have attracted many researchers because of their potential applications in various emerging technological fields [3], [4]. The organic crystals exhibit extremely large nonlinear optical coefficients and structural diversity when compared to other inorganic counterparts [5]. One of the main advantages of organic materials is that their structure can be modified to get the desired NLO properties. The origin of nonlinearity in organic NLO materials is due to the presence of delocalized π-electron connecting donor and acceptor groups, which can enhance the necessary asymmetric polarizability. Among several organic compounds reported for their NLO properties, p-hydroxybenzoic acid family crystals show promising characteristics required for NLO applications. The methyl p-hydroxybenzoate [6], morpholinium p-hydroxybenzoate [7] and pyrollidinium p-hydroxybenzoate [8], piperidinium p-hydroxybenzoate [9] crystals showed excellent second harmonic generation (SHG) property. There is a considerable interest to search novel SHG efficient crystals from p-hydroxybenzoate family. In this report, Benzotriazole-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (BHBA) single crystals were grown from methanol solution and SHG efficiency was measured by Kurtz–Perry powder SHG technique. Further, the BHBA crystal was characterized to explore the solubility, structural, optical, dielectric and mechanical properties and results have been presented.

Section snippets

Material and methods

The raw materials Benzotriazole and p-hydroxybenzoic acid in AR grade were used to synthesis the title compound. The BRUKER KAPPA APEX II and PAN analytical X’PertPRO (CuKα radiation) spectrometers were used for single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction studies. The crystalline perfection of BHBA crystal was studied by recording the high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) curve using PAN analytical X’PertPRO MRD system with MoKα1 radiation. The VARIAN CARRY 5E spectrophotometer was used to

Synthesis and crystal growth

Benzotriazole-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (BHBA) compound was synthesized by using AR grade (Merck) reagents of Benzotriazole (C6H5N3) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (C7H6O3). The equimolar amounts of Benzotriazole (11.91 g) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (13.81 g) were dissolved in 200 ml methanol at room temperature. The compound was synthesized by continuous stirring for about 8 h to ensure homogeneous concentration throughout the entire solution. The impurities were removed by gravity filtration and the

Solubility and nucleation studies

Crystal growth rate absolutely depends on its solubility and temperature. Hence, solubility is one of the most important factors for bulk crystal growth. Metastable zone width, an experimentally measurable quantity is influenced by factors, such as stirring rate, cooling rate of the solution and presence of additional impurities. The metastable zone width measurement was carried out for BHBA by polythermal method [10]. The solubility and nucleation experiments were carried out for BHBA salt in

Conclusion

Benzotriazole-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (BHBA) single crystals were grown by solution growth technique. Solubility and metastable zonewidth were determined for BHBA in methanol. X-ray diffraction studies reveal that, BHBA crystal belongs to the non-centrosymmetric space group Pna21, which is important for SHG generation. HRXRD studies revealed the FWHM of the main peak (46 arcsec) and degree of asymmetry of BHBA crystal. BHBA crystal exhibited good transmission window in visible, blue and near IR

References (18)

  • M.K. Gupta et al.

    Physica B

    (2011)
  • P. Maadeswaran et al.

    Optik

    (2011)
  • A. Bhaskaran et al.

    Curr. Appl. Phys.

    (2010)
  • P.V. Dhanaraj et al.

    Mater. Res. Bull.

    (2011)
  • P. Vijayakumar et al.

    Mater. Res. Bull.

    (2012)
  • G.S. Bahra et al.

    J. Cryst. Growth

    (2001)
  • G. Shanmugam et al.

    Spectrochim. Acta A

    (2013)
  • K. Sangwal

    J. Cryst. Growth

    (1989)
  • V. Krishnakumar et al.

    Spectrochim. Acta A

    (2005)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (24)

  • Growth and characterization of organic scintillation single crystal 1,1,4,4-Tetraphenyl-1,3-Butadiene (TPB) using vertical Bridgman technique

    2020, Optical Materials
    Citation Excerpt :

    However, when increasing the etching time to 60s, the pit pattern and size gets increases indicating the growth pattern that outcrops at the surface shown in Fig. 12(c). We therefore infer that grown crystal belongs to the mechanism of two-dimensional nucleation, proved by the existence of hillocks and growth layers of crystal surfaces [44–46]. From this analysis, it is ascertained that the TPB crystal has greater crystalline perfections and systematic package of molecules/atoms.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text