Porous organic-inorganic hybrids with nonlinear optical properties from fullerenols-metal complexation

Fullerene C 60 (refers to C 60 hereafter) has good nonlinear optical (NLO) properties, but its poor water solubility greatly limits its application. Chemical modification is an effective way to improve the solubility of C 60 , which unfortunately greatly reduces its NLO properties, especially true for multi-adducts of C 60 such as fullerenols where more than one carbon-carbon double bonds have been destroyed. Here, a strategy is provided to effectively improve the NLO properties of fullerenols via metal coordination, which greatly increases electron delocalization of the hybrid through metal-ligand charge transfer. Thanks to the hard template method, porous organic-inorganic hybrids are synthesized by mixing fullerenols with Ni 2+ in water in the presence of polystyrene (PS) microspheres, which are further embedded in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) to get a composite film. Reverse saturated absorption and optical limiting properties are clearly observed for the composite film. The nonlinear absorption coefficient ( β ) and the optical limiting threshold are determined to be 1.8E5 cm⋅GW −1 and 0.0308 J cm −2 , respectively, which is superior to fullerenols, pristine C 60 and many other NLO materials. Moreover, the preparation of fullerenols-based hybrid materials can be well extended to other divalent metal ions such as Co 2+ , making current strategy highly valuable in the field of nonlinear optics. • Porous organic-inorganic hybrids are synthesized by mixing fullerenols with Ni 2+ in water through the hard template method. • The NLO performance of the hybrids is superior to fullerenols, pristine C 60 and many other NLO materials. • Current strategy can be extended to other divalent metal ions (Co 2+ ), making it highly valuable in nonlinear optics.