Investigation of the impact of acoustic shock waves on the structural and optical properties of 1,3-bis(4-methoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one single crystal

The present paper, 1,3-bis(4-methoxyphenyl) prop-2-en-1-one (BMP), a chalcone derivative with strong π -conjugation and charge-transfer characteristics, by the Claisen-Schmidt condensation method the BMP crystal was synthesized and subjected to acoustic shock waves to evaluate its structural and optical stability under dynamic loading conditions. Shock pulses were generated using a semi-automatic Reddy tube setup, and the effects thus produced were analyzed through X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy, and UV–Vis spectroscopy. XRD results confirmed that there is no phase transition up to the fifth shock pulse, reflecting the resilience of the orthorhombic structure, with only a minor shift and variation in the intensity of diffraction peaks arising from lattice compression and dynamic recrystallization. The crystallite size decreased initially and recovered later. These observations evidence a reversible microstructural evolution. By optical microscopy, sequential formation and healing of surface defects were identified, which confirmed the occurrence of the process of shock-induced defect annihilation. In the UV–vis analysis, transmittance increased linearly until the fourth shock up to ∼38.5 % and thereafter reduced slightly. A small modulation of the optical band gap, from 3.68 eV to 3.73 eV, and then a reduction to 3.69 eV at the 5th shock conditions, has been obtained. These observations demonstrate that controlled acoustic shock treatment effectively tunes the microstructure and optical response of BMP crystals without their structural degradation, which makes them a promising candidate for stable, high-performance nonlinear optical and photonic devices to be operated under extreme environments.