Transparent crystals of Zn(SCN)2(l-C6H9N3O2) (1) and Zn(SCN)(l-C5H8NO2)(H2O) (2) were obtained using natural amino acids as linkers. The two compounds have one-dimensional structures that combine molecular and helical chiralities. They exhibit significant nonlinear optical responses that are phase matchable under 1064 nm laser irradiation. Notably, the second-harmonic generation efficiency of compound 2 (3.8 × KH2PO4) surpasses those of previously reported metal thiocyanates functionalized with natural amino acids.
Wen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.