A building-block design for enhanced visible-light switching of diarylethenes

Abstract

Current development of light-responsive materials and technologies imposes an urgent demand on visible-light photoswitching on account of its mild excitation with high penetration ability and low photo-toxicity. However, complicated molecular design and laborious synthesis are often required for visible-light photoswitch, especially for diarylethenes. Worse still, a dilemma is encountered as the visible-light excitation of the diarylethene is often achieved at the expense of photochromic performances. To tackle these setbacks, we introduce a building-block design strategy to achieve all-visible-light photochromism with the triplet-sensitization mechanism. The simply designed diarylethene system is constructed by employing a sensitizer building-block with narrow singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔEST) to a diarylethene building-block. A significant improvement on the photochromic efficiency is obtained as well as an enhanced photo-fatigue resistance over those under UV irradiation. The balance between the visible-light excitation and decent photochromism is thus realized, promoting a guiding principle for the visible-light photochromism.

Switchable stimulated Raman scattering microscopy with photochromic vibrational probes

“…Therefore, it is worth future efforts to optimize this family of probes to fully exploit the advantages of vibrational spectroscopy in photo-switchable imaging. Firstly, SRS sensitivity shall be optimized with tailored alkyne derivatives and functional groups 43 , which could help reduce the labeling density, SRS laser power, as well as the two-photon bleaching rate. Second, a series of switchable SRS probes with resolvable Raman peaks need to be achieved to enable super-multiplexing, and ideally super-resolution SRS with the principle of RESOLFT microscopy.…”

Construction of polymer materials with specific responses to violet and green lights and their potential applications in an artificial visual memory system

“…Diarylethene derivatives are typical light-responsive materials, 37 where the reversible photochemical reaction under different lights may change the physical/chemical properties between the two isomers, which will further affect the current or carrier transport in photochromic molecular devices. 38 Additionally, diarylethene derivatives generally show fatigue resistance and thermal stability; 38,39 they are the ideal choice for studying organic optoelectronic storage devices.…”

Multicomponent one‐pot synthesis of novel imidazole‐2‐thione derivatives containing allomaltol fragment

“…The substances of this class possess high fatigue resistance and thermal stability and can be used as elements of optical storage or switching devices. [ 1–8 ] Photochromic properties of these compounds are based on the photoinduced 6π‐electrocyclization of the 1,3,5‐hexatriene system. Terarylenes containing enol fragment in hexatriene system are of particular interest.…”