Photochromic transformations of phenanthroline annulated spirooxazine were observed in polycrystalline powders and solid phase films obtained from solutions by solvent evaporation. The spectral and kinetic properties of the solid phase films were studied by stationary absorp tion spectroscopy and laser flash photolysis. The mechanism of photoinitiated reactions of solid phase samples of phenanthroline annulated spirooxazine includes mutual transforma tions of different transoid isomers of the merocyanine form.Organic photochromic compounds can be used in the development of various photosensitive systems, such as optical media with nonlinear absorption, systems of opti cal information recording, and optical switchers. Com pounds retaining ability to photochromic transformations in solid films or in the crystalline state are of special inter est. Such compounds are actively used during the recent decade (see reviews 1,2 and references therein). Photo chromic transformations were observed in both poly crystalline films and single crystals of diarylethenes 3,4 and derivatives of salicylaldehyde, 1,5 arylhydrazides, 6 fulgides, 7 and chromenes. 8
Scheme 1Spiropyrans and spirooxazines (Scheme 1) refer to the most widely studied classes of photochromic compounds. In this case, photochromic transformations are due to tran sitions between the closed spiro form А and open mero cyanine form В. As a rule, spiropyrans and spirooxazines are not photochemically active in microcrystalline pow ders and single crystals. 9 This is explained by the fact that the phototransformations caused by bond cleavage between the spiro carbon atom and oxygen atom followed by isomerization of the molecule require large free volume.However, several examples for the manifestation of the ability of spiropyrans and spirooxazines to photochromic transformations in the poly and monocrystalline states are described in the literature. These properties are char acteristic of crystals of spiropyran 9-11 and spirooxazine 12 salts including pyridinium moiety. In this case, the possi bility of photoisomerization is determined, most likely, by the specific feature of the structures of these compounds in the solid state. The crystal structure formed by cationic layers separated by particular iodide ions provides a suffi cient volume for phototransformations. Several examples are known for the non salt spiro compounds exhibiting photochromic transformations. The photochromic prop erties of single crystals of N (n propyl)nitrospiropyran were observed. 13 The photochromic transformations of spirooxazine containing the azahomoadamantyl group were reported. 14 The free volume necessary for photo isomerization is provided by either cavities in the crystal packing 13 or a large size of one of the functional groups. 14