Crystal structure, Hirshfeld surfaces and DFT computation of NLO active (2E)-2-(ethoxycarbonyl)-3-[(1-methoxy-1-oxo-3-phenylpropan-2-yl)amino] prop-2-enoic acid

Nonlinear optical (NLO) activity of the compound (2E)-2-(ethoxycarbonyl)-3-[(1-methoxy-l-oxo-3phenylpropan-2-yl)amino] prop-2-enoic add is investigated experimentally and theoretically using X-ray crystallography and quantum chemical calculations. The NLO activity is confirmed by both powder Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) experiment and first hyper polarizability calculation. The title compound displays 8 fold excess of SHG activity when compared with the standard compound KDP. The gas phase geometry optimization and vibrational frequencies calculations are performed using density functional theory (DFT) incorporated in B3LYP with 6-311G++ (d,p) basis set. The title compound crystallizes in non-centrosymmetric space group P21. Moreover, the crystal structure is primarily stabilized through intramolecular N-H center dot center dot center dot O and O-H center dot center dot center dot O hydrogen bonds and intermolecular C-H center dot center dot center dot O and C-H center dot center dot center dot pi interactions. These intermolecular interactions are analyzed and quantified using Hirshfeld surface analysis and PIXEL method. The detailed vibrational assignments are performed on the basis of the potential energy distributions (PED) of the vibrational modes. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.