Growth, structural, thermal and optical studies on L-glutamic acid hydrobromide - A new semiorganic NLO material

A new semiorganic crystal, L-glutamic acid hydrobromide, C5H10NO4Br (GHB) has been grown from aqueous solution. The single crystal X-ray analysis of the crystal showed that it belongs to the non-centrosymmetric P2(1)2(1)2(1) space group with protonated glutamic acid as cation and bromine as anion. The back-bone conformations of the amino acid are in cis and trans form. The side-chain conformations are observed to be in gauche I / trans / cis / trans forms. The characteristic 'head-to-tail' hydrogen bonding interaction is observed through a chain C(5) motif. Further, the crystal structure is stabilized by an intricate three-dimensional hydrogen bonding network. TGA/DTA showed that the grown crystals are thermally stable upto 219 degrees C without any phase transition. The functional groups responsible for the various modes of vibrations were identified by using FTIR spectroscopy. UV-Vis-NIR spectra showed that the crystals have excellent transparency in the visible and infrared regions. The second harmonic generation (SHG) conversion efficiency was investigated to explore the NLO characteristics of the material. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.