Sol-gel Nanohybrid Materials Incorporating Functional Thiacalixarenes for Non-Linear Optical Applications

Macrocyclic thiacalixarenes have interesting non-linear optical properties. Thiacalixarenes bearing phenylazo, imino, ethynylic groups or platinum derived acetylides on the upper rims were designed, prepared and fully characterised. They showed interesting properties for optical limiting. Moreover these macrocycles are highly soluble in organic solvents and can easily be embedded in inorganic matrix using the sol-gel routes.Thiacalixarene based class I and II solid-state materials were prepared and their optical limiting behaviour was investigated.