Review on Synthesis, Spectral, Antimicrobial Properties of an Organic Charge Transfer Picrate Complexes

Picric acid has a tendency to form stable picrate compounds with various organic molecules due to the presence of active electron cloud and ionic bonds (Yamaguchi et al., 1988). In the past two decades, organic nonlinear optical (NLO) picrate crystals have attracted the scientists and technologists due to their potential applications in the area of photonics including optical information processing (Prasad, 1991; Marder et al., 1991; Saleh, M.C. Teich , 1991; Penn et al., 1991), highenergy lasers for inertial confinement fusion research, colour display, electro-optic switches, frequency conversion, etc. (Badan, et al., 1993). The organic picrate compounds exhibit larger NLO response than inorganic materials due to the presence of active π-bonds. However, these materials have poor mechanical strength, thermal stability, laser damage threshold, etc., than the inorganic materials. As the organic materials possess prominent NLO properties, new organic NLO materials are synthesized and characterized. A detailed survey of literature on picrate crystals are presented in this chapter.