Baggi Nicolò, Léaustic Anne, Rebilly Jean-Noël, Mavré François, Rivière Eric, Herrero Christian, Maurel François, Yu Pei
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d'Orsay 19 Avenue des Sciences Orsay 91400 France
Université de Paris Cité, ITODYS, CNRS Paris F-75013 France.
Chem Sci. 2025 Jun 10;16(27):12499-12509. doi: 10.1039/d5sc02845k. eCollection 2025 Jul 10.
Multi-addressable molecular photoswitches whose isomerisation can be triggered not only by light, but also by other stimuli are appealing for the development of novel smart materials as well as for broadening the areas for their potential application. Diarylethenes (DAEs) are among the most studied switches for this purpose, since tailored functionalisation can make them responsive not only to UV or visible light, but also to other inputs, such as an electrochemical one. In this work, we synthesised five terarylene-based switches and investigated their photochemical and redox properties. Unlike their DAEs analogues, whose cyclisation upon an oxidation-reduction sequence is well-established, our systems undergo a similar oxidative ring-closing of the neutral open form to a doubly charged closed form while the subsequent reduction leads to ring-opening to the neutral open form. Moreover, the neutral closed form can also be re-opened by a catalytic amount of oxidant. With the support of theoretical modelling and cyclic voltammetry simulations, a general mechanism is proposed to rationalise this original bidirectional dual-responsive behaviour.
多可寻址分子光开关,其异构化不仅可以由光触发,还可以由其他刺激触发,这对于新型智能材料的开发以及拓宽其潜在应用领域具有吸引力。二芳基乙烯(DAE)是为此目的研究最多的开关之一,因为定制功能化可以使它们不仅对紫外线或可见光有响应,而且对其他输入(如电化学输入)也有响应。在这项工作中,我们合成了五种基于三联苯的开关,并研究了它们的光化学和氧化还原性质。与它们的DAE类似物不同,其在氧化还原序列上的环化已得到充分证实,我们的体系经历了中性开放形式到双电荷封闭形式的类似氧化闭环过程,而随后的还原导致开环回到中性开放形式。此外,中性封闭形式也可以通过催化量的氧化剂重新打开。在理论建模和循环伏安模拟的支持下,提出了一种通用机制来解释这种原始的双向双响应行为。