A new class of photoactive and chelating ligands L1-3 have been designed and synthesized by incorporating arylazo-3,5-dimethylpyrazole units in the ligand frameworks. Significantly they are designed in such a way...

reversible erasing and printing with light makes these molecules useful in such applications.

Light‐responsive molecular systems with multiple photoswitches in C3‐symmetric designs have enormous application potential. The design part of such molecular systems is critical due to its influence in several properties associated with the photoswitches. In order to tune, and in the evaluation of the design–property relationship, we synthesized 18 tripodal systems with variations in the core, linkers, connectivity, and azo(hetero)arene photoswitches. Through extensive spectroscopic and computational studies, we envisaged the factors controlling near‐quantitative photoisomerization in both the directions (bistability) and the thermal stability of the metastable states. Furthermore, we also evaluated the impact of designs in obtaining reversible photo‐responsive sol‐gel phase transitions, solvatochromism, photo‐ and thermochromism.

We report the design, synthesis, characterization, and photochemistry of three photoresponsive azoheteroarene‐based neutral N‐donor ligands. Furthermore, those bidentate and tridentate ligands have been coordinated with Cu(I) and Cu(II) metal ions to form seven complexes exhibiting different geometries and nuclearities. Detailed studies of the electronic properties, photoswitching, and thermal reverse isomerization behavior of the photoswitched states of the free ligands and their metal complexes in different solvents are presented.

In the recent decades, the investigations on photoresponsive molecular systems with multiple azoarenes are quite popular in diverse perspectives ranging from fundamental understanding of multiple photoswitches, supramolecular chemistry, and various application prospects. In fact, several insightful and conceptual designs of such systems were investigated with architectural distinctions. In particular, the demonstration of applications such as data storage with the help of multistate or orthogonal photoswitches, light modulation of catalysis via cooperative switching, sensors using supramolecular host-guest interactions, and materials such as liquid crystals, grating, actuators, etc. are some of the milestones in this area. Herein, we cover the recent advancements in the research areas of multiazoarenes containing systems that have been classified into Type-1 {linear, non-linear, and core-based (A)}, Type-2 {tripodal C 3symmetric (C3)} and Type-3 {macrocyclic (M)} structural motifs.