Growth and study of 4-sulfobenzenaminium potassium dihydrogenphosphate for mechanical, dielectric and photonics applications

This article describes the growth and characterization of 4-sulfobenzenaminium potassium hydrogen phosphate (SPH) sulphanilic acid with potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) doped semi-organic single crystals. The crystal was grown by the slow evaporation method. Examination of the crystalline nature of the sample was carried out by single crystal X-ray diffraction and it confirmed that the sample crystallizes in orthorhombic structure in the centrosymmetric space group P2₁2₁2₁. The optical transmittance behavior was tested by UV-Vis spectral analysis. FT-IR spectral investigations have been carried out to indicate the presence of functional groups. The chemical structure of the compound was established by ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra. The SHG efficiency of the powdered SPH crystal is around 1.7 times that of pure KDP. The grown crystal was stable up to 270 °C as observed from TGA and DTA curves. The microhardness test was carried out to study the load dependency of hardness. The result of this study indicates that SPH crystal is a malleable material. From the hardness values, the stiffness constant and yield strength were calculated. The dielectric response of the novel crystal was studied in the frequency range of 50 Hz to 5 MHz at various temperatures. By employing FE-SEM, the surface morphology and the particle size of the crystal were assessed.