A High‐Content Diarylethene Photochromic Polymer for an Efficient Fluorescence Modulation

Abstract

Summary: A highly fluorescent photochromic polymer, poly‐BTFO4, was prepared. The fluorescence quantum yield of the poly‐BTFO4 was six times higher than that of BTFO4. Fatigue resistance of the polymer at its photostationary state was significantly enhanced compared with that of BTFO4. Importantly, the poly‐BTFO4 film also showed an efficient photochromism as well as strong fluorescence similar to the results in solution, which allow photoinduced fluorescence switching applicable to optical switches.Improvement of fluorescence quantum yield and fatigue resistance.magnified imageImprovement of fluorescence quantum yield and fatigue resistance.

Fluorescent Switches Based on Photochromic Compounds

“…[7,8] When one of the two states is fluorescent, the photoinduced transformation of the photochromic components within these polymeric assemblies results in the modulation of the emission intensity. [77,78] Alternatively, independent fluorescent and photochromic components can be integrated within [79][80][81] or appended to [82] the main chain of a polymer backbone. Similarly, several photochromes can be attached to a single fluorescent polymer [83,84] or a fluorophore can first be connected to a photochrome and then multiple copies of the resulting dyad can be attached to a macromolecular chain.…”

Control of optical properties through photochromism: a promising approach to photonics

“…The design of an effective light-triggered fluorescence switch is not trivial, and a zoology of diarylethene molecules [35,[134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145] and polymers [35,36,[146][147][148] have been reported so far. The main issue deals with the enhancement of the quantum yield of fluorescence of the emissive state, but maintaining overall good photochromism.…”

“…In diarylethenes, fluorescence is peculiar to the open form while it has been rarely observed in the colored state [35,141,145] and/or only in particular environmental conditions [149].…”

“…Suitable processing methods have to be applied to guarantee good optical properties in thick filters. The second approach consists in the synthesis of photochromic materials that afford amorphous films, i. e. photochromic polymers both sidechain [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] or main-chain [30][31][32][33][34][35][36], small molecules with bulky groups that prevent crystallization [37][38][39][40], sol-gel matrices [41]. In these cases the concentration of the active moiety can be markedly increased and high contrast can be obtained in relatively thin films.…”

New developments in photochromic materials showing large change in the refractive index

“…Among the different families of photochromic materials, the diarylethenes hold an important role due to their good thermal stability and photochromic efficiency 7 and they were proposed to be used in many devices 8, 9 . Since the optical quality and the content of active molecule strongly affect the performance of the optical devices, attention was paid to synthesize backbone photochromic polymers [10][11][12][13][14][15] , which allow to make films without any optical Here it is reported the characteristics of a diarylethene polyester in terms of photochromic properties, optical properties and device realization.…”