A series of new acetylide co
mplexes of the type [Fe(
mages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
5-C
5H
5)(P
mages/entities/arcraise.gif">P)(
p-C
mages/entities/tbd1.gif">CC
6H
4R)] (P
mages/entities/arcraise.gif">P =DPPE (=1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane), (
R)-PROPHOS (=(
R)-(+)-1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane), R = NO
2, C
6H
4NO
2, (
Z)-C(H)=C(H)C
6H
4NO
2, (
E)-C(H)=C(H)C
6H
4NO
2) havebeen synthesized by halide abstraction fro
m the precursors [Fe(
mages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
5-C
5H
5)(P
mages/entities/arcraise.gif">P)(I)] and fullycharacterized. Quadratic hyperpolarizabilities (
mages/gifchars/beta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="
middle">) for the co
mplexes have been deter
minedby hyper-Rayleigh scattering at 1064 n
m. The influence on the nonlinear response of acetylidechain length in proceeding fro
m 4-nitrophenylethynyl to 4-nitrobiphenylethynyl and 4-nitro-(
E)-stibenylethynyl has been studied, revealing values of the first hyperpolarizabilities a
mongthe highest reported for organo
metallic
molecular
materials. Co
mparisons on the nonlinearefficiencies are drawn with the related well-known fa
milies of co
mpounds [Ru(
mages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
5-C
5H
5)(PR
3)
2(
p-C
mages/entities/tbd1.gif">C-(aryl)-NO
2)] and [Fe(
mages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
5-C
5H
5)(P
mages/entities/arcraise.gif">P)(
p-N
mages/entities/tbd1.gif">C-(aryl)-NO
2)]
+. Cubic hyperpolarizabilities (
mages/gifchars/ga
mma.gif" BORDER=0 >) deter
mined by Z-scan at 800 n
m are consistent with an increase in
mages/gifchars/ga
mma.gif" BORDER=0 >upon replacing Ru by the
more easily oxidizable Fe and upon chain-lengthening thedelocalizable
mages/gifchars/pi.gif" BORDER=0 >-bridging unit (proceeding fro
m 4-C
6H
4 to (
E)-4,4'-C
6H
4CH=CHC
6H
4). X-raycrystallographic structures of co
mplexes [Fe(
mages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
5-C
5H
5)(DPPE)(
p-C
mages/entities/tbd1.gif">CC
6H
4NO
2)] and [Fe(
mages/gifchars/eta.gif" BORDER=0 >
5-C
5H
5)(DPPE)((
E)-
p-C
mages/entities/tbd1.gif">CC
6H
4C(H)=C(H)C
6H
4NO
2)] were studied in order to investigate theexistence of
mages/gifchars/pi.gif" BORDER=0 >-back-donation suggested by spectroscopic and electroche
mical data. Crystalpacking was analyzed with the ai
m of assessing the align
ment of the
molecules in the latticeand hence suggesting the
magnitude of NLO properties at the
macroscopic level.